# Human milk banks save India’s most vulnerable newborns 2026-08-16T17:58:41+00:00 | Health & Science | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Human milk banks in India are quietly saving the lives of premature and vulnerable newborns whose own mothers cannot feed them, Times of India reports. Dr Poonam Sidana, director of neonatology at CK Birla Hospital, Delhi, described the system as 'one mother saving the baby of another mother'. The first milk bank in India and Asia was established at Sion Hospital, Mumbai in 1989. Dr Satish Tiwari, convener of the Human Milk Banking Association of India, said milk banks are needed across India for babies separated from mothers due to illness, death, or abandonment. For premature infants weighing as little as 500g, donor human milk reduces the risk of necrotising enterocolitis and infections better than formula. Doctors stress that a mother's own milk remains the ideal, with donor milk used only as a transitional resource. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Human Milk Banking Association of India, Sion Hospital Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/human-milk-banks-save-indias-most-vulnerable-newborns/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/human-milk-banks-save-indias-most-vulnerable-newborns/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/