Bangko Sentral puts up ‘milk bank’ for lactating mothers

MANILA, Philippines – It’s a bank, but it doesn’t make loans or pay interest on deposits.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has added a new service, “milk banking,” that may not earn interest in the conventional sense but definitely yields high returns for its clients, mainly lactating female employees, officials said yesterday.

Monetary Board member Ignacio Bunye said BSP Deputy Governor Armando Suratos, who heads the Resource Management Sector, recently approved the construction and maintenance of a “milk bank” for BSP working mothers.

The milk bank or lactation room enables nursing mothers to express breast milk during office breaks, “deposit” them in the facility’s refrigerator and “withdraw” them at the end of the working day, he said.

“The BSP has taken on a new role aside from its traditional central banking activities – milk banking or the banking of milk of lactating mothers in the workplace,” Bunye said.

“Of course, the deposits do not earn any interest. But certainly, they yield high returns in terms of the improved health and general well-being of the mothers, their babies as well as improved employee morale,” he added.

Suratos, according to Bunye, said that the project is a special tribute to the unsung heroes of the workplace: “Women who choose to work to help ensure the future of their families and continue to care for their young ones at the same time.”

The recent BSP two-day “Breastfeeding Awareness Festival” has helped increase the appreciation of breastfeeding as a way of promoting a healthy life and also demonstrated that it is possible for mothers to provide the best nourishment to their children even after their maternity leaves end.

“Since she started working at the BSP last year, she has been expressing breast milk for her daughter Naima – who is now nearing two,” Bunye said, referring to his chief of staff, Jennifer Joy Ong.

Ong and Claire Mogol of the BSP’s Corporate Affairs Office, according to Bunye, have been instrumental in initiating awareness on the importance of breastfeeding at the BSP.

After getting the support of other young working mothers, the two approached Ada Cruz and Daisy Sanchez of the Human Resource Management Department’s Wellness Division and suggested the introduction of a breastfeeding awareness activity at the institution.

“Their advocacy paved the way for the approval and implementation of the milk banking project,” Bunye said.

“From the start, I had a fond preference for breastfeeding. My siblings and I were all breastfed by my mother. My mother, however, found me a little problematic. At birth, I already had two lower front milk teeth,” he said.

BSP International Sub-Sector managing director Wilhelmina Mañalac, a working mother at the BSP who fondly recalled having breastfed her three children, said in a speech during the festival that supporting breastfeeding in the workplace means supporting mothers and fathers in their goal of raising healthy, productive citizens.

“We must start giving our babies what is due them and we must help our mothers give only the best to their babies,” Mañalac said.

“The BSP official could not have said it better. Ensuring the future of these babies through breastfeeding also means ensuring our future as a society,” Bunye said. –Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star)