Hi Iona,
Yes, I think that it would be well worth looking at milk recipient's views of more information sharing- it's not been done as far as I am aware (though I don't pretend to be across all of the literature). At the moment in N America it seems that the problem is a greater acceptance of donor milk but not enough supply. Perhaps some of the milk bank people here will share.
Karleen Gribble
Australia
PS. Where are you based now?




On 07/11/2011, at 12:53 AM, Iona Macnab wrote:

> Hello Karleen
> I have only just re-subscribed to Lactnet after a long absence. I was interested in your post referring to the anonymity of blood donations as compared to milk donation. I have recently started work in the blood donation field (from the government side) and although blood donations are anonymous to recipients, the blood (in Australia anyway) is fully traceable, and any adverse event can look back to where the blood initially came from. 
> There are so many differences between blood and milk donations, and I think it would be interesting to interview the mothers of the recipients of the donor milk, and the mothers who may have been offered but refused donor milk. So many women are prepared to donate milk, yet far fewer are prepared to accept it. With more heart-warming stories emerging from recipients of donor milk (similar to the heart-warming storied of blood recipients), not only would more mothers be encouraged to donate, but perhaps more mothers would be happy to use donor milk.
> I wish the government would spend even a teensy portion of the money spent on blood banks on human milk banks. 
> 
> Iona Macnab LLLL IBCLC
> Australia
> 

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