Kigali Health Institute (KHI) has come up with a safer way of extracting and preserving breast milk from mothers that can be consumed by babies at a later stage.

According to the Rector of KHI, Dr. Desire Ndushabandi, the school has set up a ‘breast feeding’ corner to help staff and students of the institution be able to feed their babies with breast milk even during their absence.

"Breast milk is essential in the growth and intellectual capacity of the children, but due to the busy schedule of mothers today, children are normally deprived of their right to breastfeed as many times as they should have,” said Ndushabandi.

"That is the reason we thought that introducing the breast feeding corner was crucial in helping the babies of our staff and students to grow well.”

The corner operates under the midwifery department of KHI through skills laboratory. A fully equipped breastfeeding corner started in 2007 but became fully operational and beneficial to KHI community late last year.

The process of extracting breast milk is done from what is called a lactation room.

Generally, a lactation room includes a breast pump, refrigerator, sink, cleaning supplies, table, and comfortable chair. Each lactation room has just one pump that can be shared by several mothers at different times during the day.

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