Despite the vast potential of human milk centre in benefiting in-need newborns especially premature babies, its establishment has been controversial within the Muslim countries including Malaysia. One of the principal issues hindering its approval revolves around the issues of sharia-compliant.

The idea of establishment of human milk centre in Sultan Ahmad Shah Medical Centre (SASMEC) @IIUM started towards the end of 2019 as part of SASMEC @ IIUM’s Baby-friendly Hospital Initiatives (BFHI) Flagship – now known as Sejahtera Family Flagship. Halimatussaadia Mother’s Milk Centre (HMMC) team in SASMEC @IIUM aspires to establish an approved sharia-compliant human milk centre to ensure all babies are provided with mother’s breastmilk, where possible. To achieve this, HMMC team strived to develop a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) that complies with maqasid shariah in preserving not only life but also lineage, property and intellect.

Throughout the long journey in establishing HMMC, the task force had undergone multiple dialogs and discussions with the religious authority for State of Pahang (Pejabat Mufti Pahang, Majlis Ugama Islam Pahang and Jawatankuasa Perundingan Hukum Syarak Pahang). A study visit to the Donor Milk Bank in Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Glasgow filled with discussion, hands-on at the milk bank had also taken place in February 2020. This visit provided a good insight to the core team of HMMC with regards to the technicalities in establishing a human milk bank as well as the issues related to its maintenance.

The establishment of HMMC was finally approved by the Jawatankuasa Perundingan Syarak Negeri Pahang on 10th November 2020 following an elaborated meeting discussing the issues related to definition of satiety in premature and sick infants, strategies to avoid establishment of milk kinship and strategies to support families if milk kinship was to be consensually achieved.

Although HMMC has not officially been launched, we received our first donor in August 2021. Since then, we have processed about 26 litres of milk from 4 donors. All milk received at our centre will be processed and tested to ensure it is safe to be given to our sick newborns. To date, about 4 babies received our pasteurized donated milk. As we launch HMMC, we will start to publicize our facility to invite more donors to come and contribute. We hope the running of HMMC will open many more opportunities and improvement in the field of infant feeding and neonatal care not only in our centre but also in Malaysia and eventually the global community.