>I have this mother's permission to post. I attempted a LN archive search
>with no results.
>
>She asked a plasma donation center about whether she could donate plasma
>(for income) while breastfeeding an eight month old baby.
>
>She said their answer was no, based on the fact they use an anticoagulant
>which might get to the baby. I told her to find out the specific
>anticoagulant they were speaking of using so we could look it up. I did
>look up Heparin just out of curiosity and found it is too large a
>molecule to get through to the milk.
>
>Of greater concern for me is the nutritional load on the mother of losing
>protein while maintaining her own health while continuing to make the
>milk she wants for her baby.
>
>She remarked that she is feeding her baby "just 2 jars of baby food"
>daily, and breastfeeding for the rest of his nutrition. "Much cheaper",
>she said. When I next speak to her, I will ask her if she has considered
>making her own baby food with a grinder right at the family meal, to save
>money.
>
>I'd appreciate the experience or thoughts of others.
>
>Jean
>******************
>K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
>Dayton, Ohio USA

Jean, I am very behind in reading Lactnet and this may have been
covered since (apologies if it has).

I used to work in a blood donation centre many years ago (1970s and
early 1980s) as a medical technologist, in charge of pheresis (plasma
and other blood component donation) when it was just starting to be
done with automated machines, and things may have changed, but the
anticoagulants used in blood collection, including plasma and other
pheresis collection, are/were citrate anticoagulants, eg ACD (acid
citrate dextrose) or CPD (citrate phosphate dextrose). This is in
Australia, but I suspect it would be similar or the same in the US -
pheresis machines are usually 'international'. The first one we got
and was 'my baby' was an American one.

Citrate and dextrose, etc are normal chemicals in the body and are
not 'drugs' to pass through to the baby. I wouldn't think they would
be of concern at all. I would think the staff may be told not to
accept breastfeeding mothers as donors more for their own health, ie
'stress' on their bodies of losing blood or components while also
making milk, etc. We were always under the impression it was more to
do with a mother having a problem and blaming the blood bank - so
creating a possible liability situation. It was easier to reject
them! In our situation we were not paying donors.

Hope this helps.

******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Australian Breastfeeding Association counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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