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........

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