Kenya’s Only Breastmilk Bank Gives Premature Babies a Fighting Chance

Surrounded by incubators at Pumwani Maternity Hospital, four-day-old Grace-Ella is being fed donated breastmilk through a red tube carefully inserted into her nose. She is among many premature babies in Kenya benefiting from the country’s only breastmilk bank.

The facility, established in Nairobi, is one of the very few of its kind across sub-Saharan Africa.

Health officials say it has become an essential lifeline for the roughly 134,000 premature babies born in Kenya each year.

According to doctors at the hospital, breastmilk provides nutrients and antibodies that cannot be substituted, making it critical for the survival of newborns delivered before term.

The bank collects surplus milk from mothers who volunteer to donate. The milk is then screened, pasteurised, and safely stored before being administered to infants whose mothers are unable to breastfeed due to illness, complications, or death.

Medical staff at Pumwani explained that the initiative has already improved survival chances for many vulnerable babies, but they also highlighted ongoing challenges. Limited equipment, the high cost of maintaining the pasteurisation process, and cultural concerns from some mothers about donated milk have slowed wider acceptance.

Despite these hurdles, hospital officials insist the service remains vital. They say plans are underway to create more awareness and encourage expansion of milk banks to other parts of the country, where many premature babies still lack access to safe donor milk.

For now, Pumwani’s breastmilk bank continues to stand as a unique centre of hope offering fragile newborns like Grace-Ella a greater chance at life.