SABR: South African Breastmilk Reserve

To provide infants with safe pasteurised breastmilk and thereby improve their health and well-being.

To empower women living in poverty and with HIV/AIDS, through informed infant feeding choices

Vision

To stimulate and support the formation of numerous community driven breastmilk banks so as to contribute towards a South Africa ‘living with HIV/AIDS’, rather than a South Africa ‘dieing of HIV/AIDS’.

THE FEED FOR LIFE INITIATIVE : Humanitarian Franchising Model for in-Hospital Human Milk Banking.

The SABR was established as an effort to counterbalance the outcomes of HIV/AIDS on premature infants within the context of a very strained healthcare sector. With an infant mortality rate second only to Afghanistan and home to the largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS access to mother-own-milk at birth becomes a Human Rights issue as well as a Food Security concern. SABR exists to stretch the basic Human Right to breastmilk to those premature infants who find themselves deprived and therefore unlikely to survive.

Breastfeeding is credited by the International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) of Africa as the single biggest influence on decreasing infant mortality and malnutrition, especially in the least developed countries of Africa. Neonatal infections account for the bulk of neonatal deaths in developing countries. The most effective intervention in reducing the risk of neonatal infection globally is exclusive breastfeeding. WHO argues that in Sub Saharan Africa alone, increasing breastfeeding could prevent 1.5 million children deaths per year.

Premature infants in South Africa’s public health sector are generally deprived of breast milk due to factors such as: shortage of rooming-in facilities for mothers, maternal deaths during birth, mothers being too ill to lactate, etc. Without breast milk during their first two weeks of life, premature infants (especially those with a low birth weight i.e. less than 1.8 kg) are left wanting for antibodies and as such vulnerable to infections and diseases that result in hundreds of deaths annually.

Artificial feeding of premature infants is directly associated with Necrtotising Entercolitis (NEC), an infection of the intestine directly associated with artificail feeding. NEC is not compatibe with life and usually result in infants mortality rates exceeding 80%. NEC, not only costs lives, but falls squarely on public health-care budgets averaging, 1milion Rand per infant. The use of Donate breastmilg (DNM) not only sees live saved as well as large portions of the National Healthcare budget.

The Feed For Life Initiative of the South African Breastmilk Reserve focuses on promoting infant survival in the NICU through human milk banking, the use of Donated Breastmilk (DBM), and active breastfeeding promotion in the hospital and the unit.

In 2007/2008, 4 Human Milk Banks were established in Netcare hospitals with the aim of collecting donated breastmilk for the Public Sector Hospitals and the less privileged micro-premature infants. The project has been widely successful and since 2008 the SABR family grew to 17 human milk banks, 14 SABR Corners, supplying over 40 hospital facilities in 8 Provinces. In South Africa the use of donated breastmilk for the treatment of premature infants is growing along side global trends, and the demand from the South African health care sector has become overwhelming.

SABR runs an equal number of human milk banks in both the private and the pubic health care sectors. The basis onto which our Humanitarian Franchising model is built, is one of Public-Private synergy between the public and private hospital facilities. Private hospitals collect donated breastmilk that is then re-distributed at no cost to public sector infant.

The use of donated breastmilk, is an emergency procedure, the most essential consumable in the treatment of micro-premature infants, its value extends beyond humanitarian outreach into the non-negotiable realities of live saving medical treatment and the clinical management of high risk HIV exposed premature infants.

The service is built into a non-profit business model so as to insure that the financial focus is service oriented as opposed to profit oriented. SABR is a Social Business, in other words the business objective is equitable service delivery as opposed to the constrictions of capital growth and profit margins. Our profit is measured in lives saved. To ensure freedom from the prohibitive profit objectives of the medical industry we have sourced all our equipment strictly at cost. We have gone as far as commissioning our own pasteurizers from European leaders in field with exclusive global rights at 1/3 of the price of competing products. Beyond our expectations our machines introduce technological advancement far exceeding competing products in precision and rapid cooling.