Breast milk sharing can lead to dangerous dangers,…
Don’t cry over spilled milk — but watch out where your child’s next sip comes from.
In the last decade, curiosity in sharing breast milk — both formally, through milk banks, and informally, within close networks — has seen a spike among new mother and father.
In a 2017 assertion, the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine famous that casual sharing had grow to be “increasingly common as 21st century families’ desire to feed their infants with human milk increases.”
But while donor milk can have major advantages when needed, not all strategies of acquiring it are created equal.
Breast milk “provides optimal nutrition [and] immune protection for the human infant.” But there are some circumstances in which infants can’t drink from their moms. GTeam – stock.adobe.com
Julie Ware, MD, president of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM), tells The Post that human milk “not only provides optimal nutrition, but it provides immune protection for the human infant.”
But transporting breast milk isn’t as simple as buying for a carton of 2%. The same properties that make breast milk so important for newborns are what make it probably dangerous if mishandled, particularly when it’s not going to be consumed recent or it’s coming from a source other than a child’s own mom.
Human milk banks are common, and settle for donations from nursing mother and father who have an extra of milk for whatever purpose, whether or not they’ve produced an excessive amount of for their own child, their child has an sickness that prevents them from breastfeeding, or their child has died.
At a normal milk bank, milk donors are first screened for HIV, Hepatitis B and other infectious ailments, as nicely as for use of medicine, alcohol and any medicines that are incompatible with breastfeeding, according to Ware.
After the pre-screening, the bank will check the milk for bacteria, medicine and pathogens, and will then pool it together with milk from a number of other donors before finally pasteurizing it.
But some emergency conditions don’t permit for that stage of care and precision.
Why would a child need another person’s breast milk?
In Minneapolis this month, for instance, some moms have been compiling their own makeshift milk banks to present food for infants whose moms have been detained by ICE.
Some girls donate milk to milk banks, where it’s examined and pasteurized before getting distributed. (Pictured: container of breast milk at Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Northeast) AP
According to The nineteenth, one 3-month-old child, whose mom was taken from her car on her approach to work, had not eaten for a day and a half. She was completely breastfed and refused the method that her teenage sister had tried to feed her in the mom’s absence.
A neighbor who had not too long ago began freezing her own breast milk to donate to impacted households confirmed up with a cooler of milk and instructions for how to thaw it from frozen.
Plenty of other circumstances can stop a mom from producing breast milk for her baby as nicely.
Some girls die in childbirth or in any other case fall unwell, stopping breastfeeding. Milk could also be delayed if a child is born prematurely, or a mom can have restricted provide due to other health points. Donor milk can also be used in instances of adoption and surrogacy.
Why not just use method?
If separated from their moms, some infants who are exclusive breastfeeders could refuse a bottle, main to extreme dehydration and stress, Ware explains. And “without the protection of human milk, they have an increased risk of a multitude of infectious diseases,” plus issues like diabetes, asthma and even childhood cancers.
It’s not just unhealthy news for infants. There are potential medical issues for nursing moms who are usually not ready to breastfeed, too, Ware says.
In the short time period, they can anticipate important breast pain and engorgement, doable mastitis and psychological misery. In the long-term, they face an elevated risk of breast and ovarian cancers and numerous coronary heart ailments.
How protected is it to share breast milk?
Ware says that whenever doable, infants shouldn’t go without their own mom’s breast milk.
“We call it personalized medicine — it’s perfectly matched for the infant’s needs,” she says. “The mother makes breast milk that her specific baby needs.”
Breast milk also will get shared more informally. Doctors warn there are dangers concerned. Have a good day – stock.adobe.com
Donor milk, whether or not frozen or pasteurized, isn’t going to be as “amazingly personalized” for the child recipient as milk from the child’s own mom, Ware says, “but in the list of preferred milk, it’s leagues ahead of commercial formula because of the other immune factors that it has.”
Storage steering from the ABM says frozen milk, though protected to use for three months, could have diminished bioactivity in contrast to recent milk, and a lower in fats, proteins and calories.
Still, they said, “When direct breastfeeding is not possible, stored human milk maintains unique qualities, such that it continues to be the gold standard for infant feeding.”
The most secure option for milk sharing is to go through a milk bank, with its routine working procedures and thorough testing. The FDA, the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, and the European Milk Bank Association all discourage casual milk sharing exterior the scope of a milk bank — but sometimes, formal shops aren’t out there.
One technique of milk-sharing that consultants resoundingly condemn is the online sale of breast milk, which “can be adulterated with other substances or arrive fully thawed out, spoiled and contaminated with various bacteria,” according to the ABM.
“Since the breast milk that is being sold on the internet is being sold for profit, the donors may not be fully transparent regarding their health histories, medications and social practices, thereby increasing the risk to the recipient infant.”
What’s the verdict?
Milk from a trusted source, particularly pasteurized or frozen, is a good guess. But a child’s best guess will always be recent milk from its own mom.
Lactation consultants call this dynamic — a child nursing from its mom — a “nursing dyad.”
“They’re two persons enveloped in one when nursing together,” Ware says. “If you remove a piece of the whole, it’s going to interfere with both of them.”
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