I have not been following the thread of this since I am currently NO MAIL.
However, a colleague has handed me a recent post with the irresponsible
suggestion that donor milk banks will accept milk from HIV positive mothers
to pasteurize it at no charge.  I wish that people would contact me, Lois
Arnold, Executive Director of the Human Milk Banking Association of North
America, Inc. prior to issuing such statements.  People not in the field of
milk banking are being highly presumptuous and naive to assume that milk
banks would ever knowingly take milk that had the potential to be
contaminated with HIV.  This is one of the reasons we screen donors prior
to accepting milk.  There are huge safety issues here that obviously have
not occurred to some people.  The idea that milk banks, who are struggling
financially anyway, would undertake to do the labor intensive, dangerous
and liability-laden task of pasteurizing an HIV-positive mother's milk at
NO COST is ludicrous and not based in reality.

Lois Arnold, MPH, IBCLC
Executive Director
The Human Milk Banking Association of North America, Inc.
8 Jan Sebastian Way #13, Sandwich, MA 02563 USA
508-888-8050 fax;  508-888-4041 phone
e-mail: [log in to unmask]