We have had some discussion on Eats on Feets on our UK lists.

My main concern is with the volunteer donors and the support they 
need in their endeavours to donate their milk to mothers and babies 
who need it.

I have had many years experience professionally and as a volunteer 
with support of various kinds over the internet or using the internet 
as a starting place, and with telephone  helplines.

At some point, the volunteer donors are going to come up against 
people who are not who they say they are, or else the people who ask 
for help will be in sometimes severe mental distress and who overstep 
reasonable  boundaries .

I'm not gonna present scare stories here, but whatever you can 
imagine might happen, has happened in my direct and indirect 
experience, with a negative impact on the volunteer and often her 
family. I have always worked in the context of a large organisation 
with procedures and protocols, and the ability to step in and stop 
whatever horrible thing is happening.

Most of the time, everything will go smoothly and everyone will be 
happy. But one time in what, 500? 1000? something will get unpleasant 
and even scary.

That's when you absolutely need robust procedures to protect the 
volunteer donors, and I don't see any evidence of this - there is 
certainly none on the website I can see.

Milk banks are safest for donors - all the direct contact with 
strangers (who could be *anybody* and who could deliberately target a 
breastmilk service for their own non-baby related purposes and any 
other non-acceptable reason ) is done by the milk bank.

Of course this should be a health-service or other publically-run 
enterprise. Of course anyone who needs breastmilk for their baby who 
cannot provide their own should get it  - from a Milk Bank.  Putting 
people in direct touch with each other over the internet or on 
phonelines has to be done with all the cynicism and suspicion you can 
muster, sitting in the back of your mind. Sad but true.

I know not everyone agrees with me!

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
-- 
  http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk

http://heatherwelford.posterous.com

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