Hi,  My mom used to give milk for prem. babies , I can remember the midwife taking it away with her. This was in 1964 My brother was prem. and only 7lb. incubated for 4 months before mom could bring him home.  she had to come home with out him as there was not the understanding mother/baby depts. then so parents were shipped off a.s.a.p. out of the way so to speek. She obvously had milk ot spair which she was only too happy for any needy baby to have.  It must have been strang to express milk but not to have the reward of feeding?  When my brother finaly came home he had to be bottle fed as her milk had dried up by then.

I heard of one here in the U.S. I only heard about it when I attended a breastfeeding class. There is a strict guideline for milk donation, understandably, to protect against diseases and to screen for whatever medications and condition women have. They give donated milk to the same age babies as the mom hae at the time of the donation.

While I used to find wet nurses a little disturbing (pre-marriage and pre-children), I don't anymore, now that I know how good breastmilk is for babies.

while i agree that milk banks would be a good option especially for premmie babies i just dont think that they would work.
alot of time and effort would have to be put into screening the milk for viruses and diseases, then we have the problem of the donating mothers lifestyle choices...
would you be ok with giving your baby milk from a mum who is a smoker? a drinker? who takes drugs or prescription medicine? what about their eating habits?  can you screen all milk for theses things in the small amount of time that it is able to be used? do you screen the donor for these things everytime they donate? how do you trust that they haven't been in contact with maybe HIV or hepatitis in the last few days?

blood is frozen while tests are run for these things while milk couldn't be frozen long enough and still be viable. hep and HIV are tested for and then retested in 6 months because it doesn't show up till then.

sorry but i think even now with all the technology we are still a long way off having milk banks as a safe option.
and by the way... mothers who cant breastfeed can only exclusively pump for around 6 weeks b4 their breastmilk dries up.

Hi honey,

I think we need to be careful here as this is and can be a volatile subject . . . some formula's are better than others. Sumara is on a prescription Formula due to multiple food allergies which prevented me from being able to breastfeed . .
As to Milk Banks -  I think this is a GREAT idea as long as the milk is tested in much the same way as blood is these days as there are many drugs and diseases that can be passed through breast milk . . .

I have always donated my breast milk to the ICU newborns and have often been thanked by Mum's for doing this. I am on of those lucky women who could feed an army with the amount of milk i had. When Sam was a baby I was feeding her plus 4 other bubs in ICU and still had it Milk left over . .  That being said NOT all mums like the idea of giving their babies another persons breast milk

Cheers Kellz

i think the babie hospital in perth here has a milk bank for the premies, but i am sure thats as far as it goes. I would love to join in on the fun, i loved breastfeeding my kids (when i could)

Personally i think there needs to be more help to get people to breastfeed and more info and schooling. i wasnt given any help with my son and after 6 weeks i gave up, 4 months with my daughter.

i wudnt like my baby drinking somebody elses milk,i think its abit wrong. These days formula has all the vitamins and nutrients babies need anyway,and some ppl cant express milk and need to use formula.

Sorry the thought of it isn't nice to me. Milk donors? I would not like to give my baby someone elses milk. Reminds me of the olden days when they had wet nurses. The poor black people usually would have to feed the rich peoples babies. It isn't right.