> The other thing I questioned was availability and cost of a human=20
> milk bank. I would consider this to be a barrier to the use of the 
> human=20
> milk bank. The amount of work, time, and money put into banking the 
> milk=20
> is substantial. There is the cost of medical tests for the donors and=20
> recruitment, equipment used for gathering and storing the milk, the 
> cost=20
> of transporting milk, and many more incurred costs ( Tully, 2000b).

Hi Jessica,
I think milk banks are very interesting as well. We don't have any in 
Australia at the moment, so I took the opportunity to visit the Mothers' 
Milk Bank in Denver, Colorado, when I was attending a conference there last 
week. Some of the work of the milk bank is done by volunteers which helps 
keep costs down. As I arrived, a retired gentleman was dropping off milk he 
had transported.
Here is an abstract about an article that has looked at cost-effectiveness 
of milk banks. Lois Arnold looked at just one medical problem that could be 
reduced by using banked milk and found savings to the health care system.
Lisa Amir
MBBS, MMed, PhD, IBCLC in Melbourne, Australia

      J Hum Lact. 2002 May;18(2):172-7.

The cost-effectiveness of using banked donor milk in the neonatal intensive 
care unit: prevention of necrotizing enterocolitis.
Arnold LD.
Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) adds significantly to the cost of care for 
premature infants and to negative long-term and short-term outcomes for 
these infants. It is thus in the best interest of the health care system to 
prevent the occurrence of NEC through feeding protocols that foster NEC 
prevention (i.e., use of breast milk in the neonatal intensive care unit). 
Banked donor milk has been shown to be as effective in preventing NEC as 
mother's milk. Three models of cost analysis are presented to show savings 
that could accrue to a health care system or individual family if banked 
donor milk were provided as first feedings when mother's milk is not 
available. The cost of using banked donor milk to feed premature infants is 
inconsequential when compared to the savings from NEC prevention.

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