Who may need donor breast milk?

Donor breast milk is given to a newborn, especially a newborn ahead of schedule, only as prescribed by a doctor in cases where breast milk is not available.

Reasons for prescribing donor milk:

• prematurity
• Congenital metabolic disorders
• Nutrition after bowel surgery
• Allergy, milk intolerance
• Chronic renal failure
• Cardiopathies
• immune deficiencies
• Multiple births

Why is donor breast milk so important for a premature baby?

• 1 out of 10 babies is born prematurely. Breast milk is especially important for these newborns because it promotes better nutritional absorption, including in extremely immature infants, helps to significantly reduce the risk of developing serious diseases that are common in premature babies, such as necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, retinopathy, and most the main thing is to ensure further optimal neuropsychic development of these children.
• Less than half of mothers of premature newborns are able to give them their breast milk in the first time after birth. Some mothers of premature or weak babies also have medical restrictions that are incompatible with breastfeeding. When fed with donor breast milk, these children receive all the benefits breast milk that are essential for growth and development.

Donor milk safety
The closest attention is paid to the safety of breast milk in the bank of donor breast milk of the Scientific Center for Children's Health: donor mothers are carefully selected, examined, and then the received donor milk is pasteurized according to the technology that meets accepted international standards (at a temperature of 62.5? within 30 minutes).

Numerous scientific studies have shown that known pathogenic viruses and bacteria, including cytomegalovirus, mycobacterium tuberculosis, HIV, are completely deactivated with this method of pasteurization, so donor breast milk is safe for children.

In 2014 in Scientific Center for Children's Health on the basis of the department for premature babies, the first breast milk bank in Russia was opened. The initiative is implemented under the auspices of the Union of Pediatricians of Russia and with the support of the Philips Avent brand, an expert in the production of products for breastfeeding.

Donor breast milk bank is a special structure created in order to collect, check, process, store and distribute valuable donor breast milk to those newborns who need it for special medical reasons.

The NCCH donor milk bank is non-public, that is, it applies only to patients of the Center. Donors are breastfeeding mothers who are in the clinical divisions of the Center along with their babies.

Breast milk is the best food for a newborn baby and toddler up to 2 years of age. Most women can feed on their own. It is important to organize the right approach to lactation and have good nutrition. There are few cases when a child really needs supplementary feeding. At the same time, most mothers use an adapted mixture as an additional portion of food. Few people think about what could be supplemented with breast milk. A breast milk bank - personal or donor - will help in this.

When might a breast milk bank be needed?

A breast milk bank may be needed in such cases:

• mother fell ill and her body was severely depleted in order to continue breastfeeding;
• there is a need for treatment with potent and toxic drugs;
• a woman goes to work or goes to study;
• mom needs to go shopping, to a meeting or just relax;
• , and doctors forbid to continue lactation.

Additional portions of milk may be needed for women who have been diagnosed with infectious diseases that are not compatible with breastfeeding. Donor milk can be used by mothers who are completely forbidden to feed their children.

Rules for creating at home

To create your own milk bank, you need daily. Milk should be collected gradually, as an increase in demand creates an offer. Active pumping in large volumes can lead to hyperlactation. To create your own bank you need:

• the ability to express the breast (by hand or with a breast pump);
• freezer (it is desirable that it has a separate door);
• milk storage containers.

Training

1. Before pumping, it is necessary to wash the breast and prepare a breast pump with containers.
2. Previously, all containers that come into contact with the baby product must be sterilized.
3. To facilitate pumping before the procedure, you can pour warm water over your breasts and drink hot tea. This will expand the ducts and speed up the flow of milk into the container.
4. Hand pumping takes longer, so it’s more convenient to take a breast pump to create your own bank.

Freezing and thawing

The procedure and breast milk requires compliance with the following conditions:

• milk is collected in a container and placed in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours;
• the container is sent to the freezer (it is recommended to make a record of the pumping time and volume on it);
• when the need arises, the milk in the container is thawed in the refrigerator;
• after receiving a liquid homogeneous substance, it is heated and given to the child.

Storage

Store milk in the freezer preferably near the back wall. If the refrigerator has a self-defrosting function, contact with the side surfaces must not be allowed.

Important! Permissible shelf life of frozen milk is 6-12 months.

Donor breast milk bank

The breast milk bank is a kind of laboratory in which the collection, testing and processing of breast milk from different women. In the future, the distribution of children's food to babies who need it.

The first donor milk bank was founded on the basis of the Scientific Center for Children's Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. It has been active since the fall of 2014. The second bank was opened 3 years later in Ufa. Both organizations are closed. This means that only those babies who are being treated in these institutions can receive valuable nutrition. In this case, only the mother whose child is undergoing therapy in this organization can become a donor.

In other countries, breast milk donation has long been practiced. At the same time, there are not only closed, but also open organizations. This provides an opportunity for all willing women whose children need breast milk to receive a valuable product.

In addition to two closed banks in Russia, there are Internet platforms through which women exchange milk. Transfer conditions are negotiated in each case individually.

Who are they for?

Donor milk banks operating in Russia are intended for children who are being treated in medical institutions who organized this system. Premature babies often undergo rehabilitation at the Republican Children's Clinical Hospital of Ufa and the Scientific Center for Children's Health. They cannot consume mother's milk because they are still very weak. All feedings are carried out through a special tube. If a mother has breast milk, she can express it for her baby. However, after premature birth most women have difficulty with this. Lack of breast milk or the need to use strong drugs requires a temporary baby. Donor milk bank comes to the rescue.

Breast milk is much healthier than. It allows the baby to get stronger faster, organizes the proper functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, prevents infectious diseases and provides strong immunity in the future. For this reason, experts insist that weakened babies must receive breast milk.

How safe is donor milk?

Foreign breast milk may contain dangerous infections: HIV, CMV, hepatitis B and C, Epstein-Barr virus, pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms. Numerous experiments show that when children's food is heated quickly, the immunodeficiency virus and some dangerous bacteria are destroyed. Banks use this method of pasteurization.

Candidates who have repeatedly undergone examinations during pregnancy become milk donors in organized closed banks. The product is accepted from women who have been tested for HIV, syphilis, hepatitis, herpes and other infectious diseases. Storage of biological fluid is carried out in accordance with standard norms for a strictly specified period. Moms whose babies are breastfed in institutions don't have to worry about the product being dangerous.

The situation is different in informal banks, which involve the exchange of baby food through Internet sites. Despite the fact that women are usually examined during pregnancy and before childbirth, the risk of infection of the baby through milk cannot be excluded. Do not forget about substances that penetrate the product from drugs and food.

Important! When purchasing milk from a stranger, you need to be sure of her health, lifestyle, nutrition and the absence of bad habits.

Where can I get donor milk

Donor milk can be taken in two closed medical institutions if you get there for treatment with a baby:

• Moscow, Lomonosovsky prospect, 2/62;
• Ufa, st. Stepan Kuvykin, 98.

Milk exchange can be done on specialized sites - this is available to all women.

Who can become a donor

A lactating woman can become a breast milk donor if she does not have infectious diseases that can be passed on to the child. A donor candidate must lead a proper lifestyle and have good nutrition. She should not have bad habits and diseases that require regular medication. Donors should not take drugs whose active substances are absorbed into the blood.

If we talk about sites on the Internet, on the basis of which the exchange of breast milk is carried out, then almost every nursing mother can become a donor.

Breast milk bank video - pediatrician's opinion

Online milk exchange

On the Internet, women can give and receive breast milk. In most cases, the exchange is carried out without preliminary examinations and conclusion of a legal agreement. For many years, such sites have been operating in foreign countries. However, getting breast milk from there is expensive, inconvenient and unsafe.

In Russia, there are de largest sites:

• milk mom organized in 2013. Milk is given free of charge in different cities of Russia.

Nekrasova Anastasia Mikhailovna

Pediatrician, pediatric cardiologist

Ask a Question

Ingoda there are situations when a mother cannot, due to any circumstances, feed the baby with breast milk. Then another mother can come to the rescue, and become a donor for the baby without leaving him hungry.

What is donor breast milk

This is the name of the milk of another mother (nurse) which is of the same type as the mother of the child intended for children under the age of 6 months (up to 2 years, depending on how the mother feeds the baby) as the main food that completely replaces the entire diet of the baby (nutrition , water).
The milk of the donor-nurse is obtained as usual, by natural selection (pumping). WHO (World Health Organization) proved that mother's milk is unique in its composition and has no analogues, and artificial mixtures, as they say, "were not even close." But sometimes unpleasant incidents happen when a mother simply needs donor help. Then she can turn to the nurse for help. This very often happens in maternity hospitals, if, for example, the mother had a very difficult birth or she is infected, but the child is healthy (this is called the "risk factor"), all the necessary documents and certificates that he is completely healthy are attached to the child, then the wet nurse who has excess milk can feed him. It also often happens that the mother loses milk after childbirth due to the transferred birth stress (everyone is individual). As a rule, this is for several days, but if the baby is healthy and there is a donor mother who agreed to feed him, they give her "care".

There are so-called "peering networks" in the world, which are created specifically so that both donors-nurses and those who need them can help each other. These organizations work absolutely free of charge, only on mutual assistance, but there are exceptions that are condemned by many mothers from all over the world. After all, feeding a defenseless baby is worth the money if you have milk to help.

Cases in which there is a need for donor milk

• Due to circumstances, the mother does not have enough breast milk, and they want to supplement the baby with a mixture only after a certain period. It often happens that a mother either does not have enough milk, or she lost it after childbirth due to nervous stress and postpartum shock. It's pure psycho-emotional state and it is not negotiable, since the woman is not to blame that her body reacted this way. Then the parents turn to milk donor mothers and ask them to feed them until the condition of the biological mother returns to normal. Approximately, this can last a month or two (often the bill goes for a week or two at all), for someone else.
• After the birth, the mother has no milk at all, and he was breastfed, but according to the discharge, the parents want only breastfeeding.
• The mother of the child takes heavy antibiotics that cannot be "fed" to the child with milk, even if she has it. Also, if the mother is in a serious condition after childbirth (coma, large blood loss, too low hemoglobin). Then the father or relatives resort to the services of a milk mother.
• If the mother of the child, who feeds, has an urgent need to leave or she is sick and needs to go to the hospital.
• If adoptive parents They took the baby directly from the baby's home and do not want to feed it with artificial feeding.

Who can become a breast donor for a child

• Mothers who, while feeding their children, also express milk, as an overabundance makes itself felt.
• Moms who have expressed milk decided to freeze milk "in reserve", but it, after lying no more! three days was useless.
• Mothers who gave birth to a small baby, having a huge supply of milk that he does not have time to eat (it flows or can burn out) and are happy to take someone else's baby to feed (although there are no other people's children).

Safety when choosing a breastfeeding mother and her little feeder

• First, be sure to confirm that you agree to have your child fed by the donor mother. differently and at honey. staff and the donor may have problems.
• Be sure to find out about the health of the donor-breadwinner.
• It is important for the nurse to know if the baby is infected, because during suckling (even if he is toothless), his saliva enters directly into the woman's body through the open nipple. And if the baby has some kind of infection because of the mother and you were not informed about it and did not provide certificates, this is directly a matter of jurisdiction.
• The nursing mother must also make sure that the mother has good reasons for not breastfeeding the baby herself. If there were none and the mother simply does not want to feed her child with milk in abundance, it is better for the wet nurse to help someone who really needs it.

With the advent of a huge number of mixtures, donation of breast milk in the eyes of society began to lose its meaning. Indeed, why take someone else's milk when you can just go and buy a package of formula? Which is accessible and, at first glance, useful for the child. But is it really so? Draw your own conclusions. And I'll just tell you about my donation experience and give a couple practical advice on this topic.

My donation started suddenly. A request for help was heard in the breastfeeding support group of our city (a classic of the genre - a mother who was urgently taken to a gynecology department and a father who stayed with his son at the age of 10 days).

Amazingly motivated to breastfeed, dad instantly found the coordinates of breastfeeding consultants and was ready for anything. In addition to buying a can of mixture. Such a fiery cry for help could not go unanswered: we phoned, and after a couple of hours I was hung around with breast pumps of the most bizarre designs. These were provided in abundance by my host dad and the local breastfeeding support group.

I will say right away that I was not sure that I could express enough milk. My youngest daughter was 5 months old at the time of the donation, the eldest was 1 year 3 months old. Tandem feeding and donation do not go well together, so for a couple of days I was painfully looking for a balance: the youngest daughter without complementary foods - all the best, the eldest daughter and baby without a mother - in half. The first days were torment. Uninterrupted pumping and feeding, the host dad came in the morning and evening, but there was not enough milk. His son was mixed-fed. But I also considered it a huge victory! A couple of days later, another mother-donor joined our friendly trio. Together, we kept the child on full breastfeeding until the baby's mother left the hospital.

Why was all this, you ask?

The best, natural baby food is mother's milk. When, for objective reasons, a woman cannot breastfeed, a doctor or consultant prescribes supplementary feeding. And this is where Mom gets in trouble.

First, most easy way resolving the issue- go and buy a mix. But this is also the most problematic option. Colic, constipation, allergies - this is an incomplete list of children's problems on artificial feeding. Also, we must not forget that the mixture is a powder limited in its composition, the original purpose of which is to support the vital activity of the child in extreme conditions when mother's milk is not available.

This position is shared by World Organization health care, prioritizing as follows:

1. Mom's milk.

2. Mom's expressed milk.

3. Donor milk from a woman.

Then there were more children who urgently needed expressed milk. Of course, I wasn't the only one helping. There were also donors, sometimes two or three mothers collected milk for one baby at the same time. In any case, it was incomparable better mixture and I am grateful to those parents who understood the difference between breast milk and powder in a jar and went every day for precious bottles.