What Is a Human Milk Donor Bank?
Before the development of infant formulas, a child whose mother was unable to breastfeed could die without the help of a wet nurse—a lactating woman who would nurse another’s baby. As wet nurses became less popular (partially due to the belief that wet nurses transmitted disease), the milk bank was born as a way to provide human milk to children desperately needing it. Then in 1911, Boston, Massachusetts, became home to the first milk bank in the US. Back then, unwed mothers were paid to donate their breast milk, and many hospitals practiced pasteurization and screening to ensure milk was free from disease and safe to use. As technology improved, so did the banks’ methods of sterilizing, pasteurizing, storing, freezing, and delivering human milk.
