USING BANKED MILK FOR YOUR BABY
If your baby (or babies) came too early, or after a difficult birth or illness, it may be difficult for you to provide enough milk for his or her growing appetite. We are glad that you are considering using banked milk for the milk you cannot supply for your precious baby. Please click here for directions on ordering milk.It is indeed fortunate that women share their gift of milk. Some mothers need banked milk for only a few days until their own milk supply can meet their baby's needs. Other women need longer. A few women will not be able to provide their own milk for their babies at all.
Some new parents feel uncomfortable giving their babies milk from another mother. However, mothers have been sharing milk throughout history, through wet nursing and cross nursing. While your milk is best for your baby, another mother's milk is the second best option. Human milk has the optimal balance of nutrients, immunologic and growth factors for human babies. Formula, which is based on milk from a cow or a soybean, cannot provide this balance for your baby.
In order to ensure the safety of donor milk, each donor mother fills out a detailed health history, confirmed by her physician, and has a blood test to assure that she is not carrying any diseases that pass through breast milk. Read our Donor information. Donor milk is tested and heat treated so that the bacteria are eliminated and the nutritional and immunologic components are maintained.
In 40 years of modern milk banking, there has never been a case of a baby becoming sick from using donor milk through a HMBANA milk bank.
If you have further questions, please contact your baby's neonatologist or pediatrician or the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England.