In 1989, inside a busy municipal hospital in Mumbai, Dr Armida Fernandez was searching for a way to save the babies she could not stop thinking about.
Many were born too early. Some were underweight. Others had survived difficult deliveries, only to face another challenge: the absence of breast milk.
For these newborns, breast milk was not just food. It was protection, nourishment, and often the difference between life and death.
So Dr Fernandez created a system where mothers could help babies they would never meet.
That year, at Mumbai’s Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital, better known as Sion Hospital, she established Asia’s first human milk bank. More than three decades later, the model she pioneered continues to nourish thousands of vulnerable infants and has inspired a nationwide movement in neonatal care.
This year, the 83-year-old neonatologist was honoured with the Padma Shri.
But for Dr Fernandez, the recognition belongs to many others as well.
“The work I have been doing all these years could not have been done alone,” she told the media after the announcement. “This award belongs to the entire team of volunteers and organisations I work with in the field of healthcare.”
A question that changed newborn care
Long before human milk banks became part of India’s healthcare landscape, Fernandez was working in Sion Hospital’s neonatal unit.
She joined the institution in 1971 and spent decades caring for premature and critically ill babies, many from Mumbai’s most underserved communities, including Dharavi.
Time and again, she saw newborns struggle because they did not have access to breast milk.
Some mothers were too ill after childbirth to feed their babies. Others were recovering from complications that delayed milk production. Premature infants, meanwhile, needed human milk more than anyone else.
Breast milk contains antibodies that help protect newborns from infections, strengthen immunity, and support healthy development. For low-birth-weight and premature babies, its benefits can be life-saving.
Fernandez realised that while some mothers could not produce enough milk, others had more than their babies needed.
The solution was simple, yet revolutionary.
The milk bank she established collected donated breast milk from lactating mothers. After screening, pasteurisation, and safe storage, the milk was provided to newborns who needed it most.
Breast milk contains antibodies that help protect newborns from infections, strengthen immunity, and support healthy development. Photograph: (ET Health World)
What began as a pioneering experiment has since become a lifeline for thousands of families.
Today, the milk bank receives between 800 and 1,200 litres of donated milk annually and supports an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 babies every year.
Building a culture of care
The milk bank was only one part of Fernandez’s mission.
Throughout her career, she championed breastfeeding and maternal nutrition, often reminding families that a healthy mother is essential for a healthy child.
She also worked to make mothers active participants in neonatal care, helping reshape how hospitals approached the treatment of newborns.
The impact was visible.
As breastfeeding support improved and access to donor milk expanded, infant deaths in the unit fell significantly.
Today, India has more than 125 human milk banks, though access remains uneven, particularly outside major cities. Photograph: (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action/ Shutterstock)
Today, India has more than 125 human milk banks, though access remains uneven, particularly outside major cities.
At a time when exclusive breastfeeding rates in India have declined from 63.7 percent to 55.8 percent, the need for safe donor milk remains as important as ever.
Beyond the hospital walls
Fernandez’s commitment to healthcare did not end with her retirement from Sion Hospital, where she served for three decades as Professor and later Dean of Neonatology.
As the founder trustee of the Mumbai-based NGO SNEHA (Society for Nutrition, Education and Health Action), she helped expand community health programmes from a single slum settlement to partnerships across Maharashtra and several other states.
The organisation works on maternal and child health, nutrition, gender-based violence, and community wellbeing, using training and local partnerships to create lasting change.
A legacy measured in lives
Born in Goa and raised in a family that encouraged the humanities over science, Fernandez chose medicine anyway. She studied in Karnataka, completed her postgraduate training in Mumbai, and spent a lifetime serving some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.
Today, her legacy is measured by far more than awards or institutions.
It lives in every premature baby who received donor milk when their own mother could not provide it. It lives in the families who found support during difficult moments. And it lives in a simple but powerful idea: that one mother’s generosity can help another child survive and thrive.
