Do they still have mother's milk banks in some places?I know that they discontinued them here. I had a ton of extra milk that I would have donated, but my doctor advised me that they don't operate anymore. Does anyone know why? |
Do they still have mother's milk banks in some places?I know that they discontinued them here. I had a ton of extra milk that I would have donated, but my doctor advised me that they don't operate anymore. Does anyone know why? |
There are still lots of them, including some that are vaguely scam-like which send the milk to Africa.
Where do you live?
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There's one in BC, I mean that's only what an 18 hour drive?
http://www.bcwomens.ca/Services/Pregnanc...
There used to be one in Toronto but that doesn't help either and it seems to be gone.
You could try going through this site: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Mil...
http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/News/Depos...
Opening new branches
Although Vancouver has managed to hold on to its milk bank through good times and bad, the rest of Canada, including Toronto, is mostly out of luck. While arrangements can sometimes be made in certain hospitals, a formal and fully accessible donor banking system remains elusive. And, at least in Toronto’s case, it’s not for want of trying.
“There has been a working group for three years and we have completed the proposal but it’s still early days,” says Sharon Unger, MD and staff neonatologist at both Toronto’s Mount Sinai and SickKids Hospitals. Despite enormous effort on the part of a many individuals and several institutions, “there’s still no promise, no location, no funding, and no offer to insure what is still viewed – despite evidence to the contrary – as a risky business.”
One way to overcome this perception is to go beyond HMBANA standards of safety. “We followed the HMBANA guidelines but then stepped it up. We have added the use of bar-coding systems and milk analysis,” says Unger, who is also an assistant professor in the department of paediatrics at the University of Toronto. “The proposal creates a new gold standard, but that also makes it more expensive.”
Dr Unger remains optimistic, noting that the value of milk banking is becoming more recognised as time goes on. As an example, she says the Canadian Paediatric Society is set to endorse a policy that hospitalized newborns should be fed with mother’s milk first, donor milk second, with artificial formula as a “distant third” option.
Human Milk banking Association of North America
http://www.hmbana.org/index/served
http://www.hmbana.org/index/served
I still have a milk bank in my city maybe they weren't getting enough donations or not enough parents were using the milk bank to provide breastmilk for their babies.
Yes, they still have them where I live.