Feed the Baby and Maintain Supply. Those are the top priorities when a mother and baby are having difficulty feeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends:
1. Exclusive breastfeeding.
2. Expressed milk from the mother.
3. Pasteurized Human Donor Milk
4. Artificial Infant Food, also known as formula.
When a mother begins expressing her own milk, the sooner the better, she boosts her supply. Meanwhile, she can use Pasteurized Donor Human Milk (PDHM) to feed her baby. Breast milk as a first food is beneficial for all babies.This is especially true for premature and sick infants who are in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
According to the Mothers Milk Bank NorthEast, “Over 90 hospitals in 11 states use our milk in their neonatal intensive care units, special care nurseries, and well-baby units.” Families can also receive PDHM beyond their stay at the hospital.
To be clear, Pasteurized Donor Human Milk comes from healthy women who, under specific guidelines, donate their milk to an official Human Milk Bank. The donor collects her milk and brings it to a milk depot.
The depot is a place where the milk can be stored in a freezer and then shipped to the milk bank. It’s at the Milk Bank that the donor milk is processed. (Briefly, this includes pasteurization, testing, labeling and freezing.)
A milk depot can be at a clinic office, a yoga studio or a day care center and many other places in the community. Anything is possible! In Maine, there are four milk depots.
Having several milk depots in the community makes it easier for donors. It’s necessary to have a ‘distribution network’, a way to connect the donor to the Milk Bank and to the families. That’s a problem that’s been solved in creative ways.
Brasilia put together the largest network of human milk banks in the world. “Lactating women… call a milk bank courier or specially trained firefighter to come and pick up their contribution direct from their home.” Then the milk is taken to a milk bank for processing. That is convenient and effective. “The result: the proportion of Brazil’s babies who receive only breast milk up to six months had shot up to 40 percent by 2006, from less than 4 percent 20 years previously.”
In New York state, there is a unique system to help distribute PDHM. The Siren Motorcycle club, a group of women motorcyclists, picks up donations from a milk depot and then delivers it to hospitals and to private homes. When I told my friend about these two programs, she said “Amazon could deliver donor milk for free!”. That’s another good idea.
Healthy breastfeeding mothers can donate. Mothers needing more supply can receive donor human milk.
Human Milk Banks are medical non-profit organizations. There are several around the globe. There are Human Milk Banks in North America and in Europe . There are also milk banks in Singapore, India, Iran and Vietnam.
There are still gaps in care across the state, across the country. Insurance coverage for human milk would be very helpful. The immune and growth factors in breast milk are medicine as well as wholesome nutrition. There are two bills being considered in the Massachusetts legislature, House and Senate bills H995 and S633. These are both in regard to insurance coverage of PDHM.
- Let your legislators know the value of donor breast milk for all families. On January 23, 2020, the Maine Legislator will be hearing testimonies regarding LD 1938: An Act Concerning MaineCare Coverage for Donor Breast Milk.
Pasteurized Donor Human Milk should be available to every family who needs it, no matter the location or their income. Making this available with several milk depots in the community is valuable support. Milk donations means another family will be able to provide breast milk for their babies. One family’s life is healthier and that’s good for the wellness of our communities.
