PRO BANKING: The Lactivist "Why Human Breast Milk Banking?"
One of the goals of the Lactivist is to help spread awareness of the availability of human milk banks. As a donor to the Mother's Milk Bank of Ohio, I've been continually amazed to learn just how vital human breast milk is to the most fragile of babies. One of the questions that I've heard time and time again both in person and on discussion forums is whether or not donor milk is safe.
The reality is that milk bank donors are carefully screened. Full medical histories are taken, bloodwork is done (and must be redone every six months) and release forms must be completed by both a woman's physician and her baby's pediatritian. These women must remain drug and alcohol free and cannot donate any milk collected while they, or any members of their families are ill. Donors are also given an extensive list of medications they may not take while donating. (For instance, even a single tylenol means that a mother cannot donate any milk collected within twenty-four hours of taking the pill.)
Donor milk is so safe that there has never been a single documented case of a baby being harmed by donor milk in the forty-year history of modern milk-banking in the United States.
CAUTIOUS: BBC "Move To Commercialise Breast Milk"
A US firm is looking to commercialise breast milk by selling it to hospitals for the treatment of sick babies.
Prolacta Bioscience, a small company just outside Los Angeles, also wants to carry out research to develop breast milk-based therapies.
Breast milk, with its minerals, digestive enzymes and antibodies, has long been credited with keeping babies healthy and boosting intelligence.
But experts said it would put pressure on mothers to sell their milk.
Until now breast milk donation in the US and UK has largely been confined to a handful of non-profit milk banks that collect milk on a local basis to provide it to premature and sick infants whose mothers struggle to breast feed.
But Prolacta is aiming to buy donated breast milk from independent milk banks and hospitals across the US, pasteurise it and sell it back to hospitals to treat low-birth weight babies.
But the Human Milk Banking Association of North America questioned the "buying and selling" of human milk.
CAUTIOUS: CNN "Not Your Mother's Breast Milk"
I was [...] intrigued when I heard about a new movement of women nursing each other's babies and sharing pumped breast milk.
Many of these women meet over the Internet, where Websites such as Craigslist.org and parent chat groups have made it easier for mothers to reach each other. The practice is so prevalent that Craigslist and La Leche League told my producer that they and many other Websites regularly pull these postings out of fear of running afoul of some state laws against selling any bodily fluids.
Most of the women I met take great precautions when entering a milk-sharing agreement, having their donor moms fill out a health questionnaire, and requiring lab work showing they'd tested negative for diseases like HIV and hepatitis.
But the American Academy of Pediatrics and the La Leche League, an international parent group devoted to breastfeeding, frown upon this kind of milk-sharing. They point out that even if someone tests negative for a disease, they could contract it after the testing while still supplying milk to the baby.
There's no way to know how many women participate in milk-sharing, but just do a little Web-surfing and you'll find many trying to donate, sell, or acquire someone else's breast milk — and that doesn't even count the women quietly in their own homes nursing each others babies or giving pumped breast milk to a friend.
This milk-sharing movement, is to a large extent, powered by the Internet, where people can meet total strangers with amazing speed. It's gotten extra momentum from recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Even formula companies recommend breastfeeding instead.
WARNS AGAINST RISKS: The L.A. Times "Feeding a Need"
Breast milk is the most natural food on Earth and — some would argue — the most essential for a baby's health. Still, it isn't something every woman can produce. For those who can't, the quest to obtain it can become a mission.
Two factors fuel the trend. One, mothers have learned the many health benefits of breast milk, thanks in part to the strong encouragement from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization. And two, new mothers have greater access to breast milk sources through the Internet.
Breastfeeding experts agree that the find-it-yourself movement is growing. But the nature of the Internet and word-of-mouth relationships make it difficult to determine whether hundreds, or thousands, of women are seeking breast milk from unlicensed providers.
Although health experts don't want to malign mother's milk, the fact is, getting it from some place other than a milk bank could endanger an infant's health.
...read the full article
Breast milk is the most natural food on Earth and — some would argue — the most essential for a baby's health. Still, it isn't something every woman can produce. For those who can't, the quest to obtain it can become a mission.
Two factors fuel the trend. One, mothers have learned the many health benefits of breast milk, thanks in part to the strong encouragement from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization. And two, new mothers have greater access to breast milk sources through the Internet.
Breast-feeding experts agree that the find-it-yourself movement is growing. But the nature of the Internet and word-of-mouth relationships make it difficult to determine whether hundreds, or thousands, of women are seeking breast milk from unlicensed providers.
Although health experts don't want to malign mother's milk, the fact is, getting it from some place other than a milk bank could endanger an infant's health.
"Breast milk is a human tissue and therefore carries the same risks that transferring other human tissues carry," said Ron Harkey, section chief of tissue, blood-banking and cytology surveillance for the California Department of Health Services. Babies could contract diseases such as AIDS and hepatitis, he says, or become ill from contaminated milk that hasn't been properly collected and stored.
"Your next-door neighbor might be a wonderful person," Harkey said, "but when it comes to sharing something like her milk, she could put your baby at risk."
California and New York (but no other states) even have laws that prohibit unlicensed providers from distributing breast milk, which can transmit disease.
But some women are not easily deterred. They've heard for years about the brain- and immunity-boosting benefits of breast milk, and they're determined to give their children every advantage.
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If a mother is seeking donated milk the first question to consider is whether or not she can supply her own milk. Some mothers need to know that they will be able to breastfeed their babies in less than ideal or special circumstances. For example, many mothers have been able to provide their own milk for their premature or ill babies. Many mothers also continue to breastfeed after returning to work and, in most cases, provide sufficient milk.
In other cases, because of lack of knowledge or a poor start, a mother may be in a situation where her body is not producing enough milk.
In rare circumstances when a mother's own milk is not available a human milk bank provides the best alternative with pasteurized, screened donor milk. In the absence of the infant's own mother's milk, donor milk offers many of the same benefits of human milk for the infant, including: optimal nutrition, easy digestibility, and immunologic protection against many organisms and diseases.
Health care providers and researchers have expressed concern that the casual exchange of human milk could be a potential route of transmission for drugs and viruses.
A mother who is unable to use a human milk bank is encouraged to use the services of a doctor who is knowledgeable about managing human milk donations. The doctor will order the necessary testing for the donor mother, and make sure that the mothers involved in the donation are given the correct management information about human milk expression, storage and transportation.
