How does a donor human milk bank operate?
Breastfeeding mothers willing to express extra milk are carefully screened for health behavior and tested for communicable diseases before being accepted as donors. Donors are taught how to express their milk according to protocols. Donor milk is heat treated to destroy any bacteria or viruses that may be present. Milk is stored frozen until it is needed. “My child might not have lived if it weren’t for breast milk donations. She is adopted and I couldn’t provide her with mother’s milk… People don’t realize that some children can’t survive on formula and some mothers can’t provide their own breast milk.”–Mary Jane Pfuetze “It was hard to be a middle class family and know we could not buy or get any food our child could eat from the grocery store. Without donor milk, she could have starved to death in America.”–Mary Allenson What does donor milk offer? Donor milk has a broad range of therapeutic uses. In the absence of the infant’s own mother’s milk, donor milk offers all the benefi