I have known Nancy since 1986 when she was responsible for getting a lactation program started here at my hospital and convincing me to take the available training to become an LC - instead of the midwifery track I was planning on doing. I am forever grateful to her vision and commitment, her brilliance and compassion for the babies and their moms. Let's think about the expense of providing some of the cancer meds and antirheumatoid meds that are now available. I have friends that are alive after a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer - 10 years later! I have friends that are walking that would have been in a wheelchair. All these are due to someone investing their money into research and development in hopes of an eventual profit - it was not altruism that drove them. The same goes for human milk fortifier from human milk. Do we think the answer is to genetically modify cows to produce human milk fortifier? I think you are right Jodine in saying that a lot of the bumbles and lack of transparencey is ignorance. I had a hard time believing Ross would partner with a competitor for their human milk product - but could it POSSIBLY be that it was "the right thing to do?" And they realized that if you want to provide the very best for NICU babies, it had to come from a species related individual? Could there POSSIBLY be good people that work for Ross? It's easy to paint everyone that is your competitor with a black brush, but sometimes people start with good motives and realize that they can't survive without expanding their market. No matter what the source of income is (donations, taxes, income from services or products) there is no REAL such thing as NON-PROFIT. Someone pays somewhere - just as a mother gives of her body and soul when she has a baby and breastfeeds. There is NO free lunch. And human milk donation is a temporary thing for any one donee. There has to be continuous recruitment. Blood can be donated over many, many more years than can milk. Red Cross sends a "frequent flyer" type card and requests when they have needs from their regular donors. Milk banks can't send out a notice requesting more milk - they have to take what people freely donate! I think we need BOTH community banks AND specialty banks like Prolacta.
And let's count in the cost of milk banks and the milk provided what is donated in services, overhead costs, etc, add a normal markup - to cover future expenses such as repairs, capital equipment, marketing, recruitment etc. If we do that, we can get a better cost comparison between the prolacta product and the subsidized community bank product. I would be interested in knowing that.
-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jodine Chase
Sent: Friday, June 24, 2011 12:00 PM
Subject: Re: Had to share
Thanks for that reminder, Jane, of where we were before this product became available for VLBW babies. I remember Nancy Wight speaking out and asking for this product at the San Jose HMBANA conference in... 2003?
A big issue for me is transparency. It has frustrated me that virtually of the public discussion around Prolacta and how it gets its milk has been driven by activists and bloggers.
Women should know exactly what they are getting into when they donate to a bank that sends milk to Prolacta. If it weren't for the efforts of a handful of outspoken individuals who have blogged faithfully and pushed the issue into mainstream media from time to time, there wouldn't be nearly as much disclosure as we have now. I believe that current level of discussion - and disclosure - is still inadequate.
I am not saying there is full transparency on the non-profit side either.
I also don't believe a lack of commitment to transparency is necessarily a sign of deliberate deception. Sometimes it's just inexperience or fatigue or a lack of depth - or even just an inability to foresee the unintended results of nondisclosure.
I do believe we can all do better at this. I'm hoping for some productive and open dialogue on Lactnet around this issue - it's been a long time coming.
-- Jodine Chase
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
On 2011-06-24, at 8:14 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
> I want to play advocate here - not because I have any interest in prolacta or ross. I work with a level 3 NICU where babies are cared for that are ventilator dependent, as young as 23 weeks with multiple needs. Our NICU MD's would LOVE to be able to provide all human milk diet to these babies INCLUDING prolacta-style human-milk based fortifiers which these babies NEED as Dr. Wight will testify. Just like babies occasionally need blood transfusions from donated blood, babies NEED human milk fortifiers from human milk donations. There is a huge cost to blood transfusions that is paid by the patient or their insurer or if those default, by the hospital itself (and taxpayers and investors, etc.). Do I get paid when I donate blood? No. I will make more. Maybe blood banks should become milk depots. There is expense involved for processing whole blood donations into various components such as platelets, packed cells, etc. The patient/hospital/insurer/taxpayer pays extra for those products. Again, the donor isn't paid except with thanks. Do some people I don't think are very good people get some of my blood when I donate? Yes. Should I not donate? No. You gotta be careful here. I think we need community milk banks and mothers should be encouraged to donate AND we should have a prolacta available. The cost of the product includes all the R&D, marketing, equipment, etc. Milk banks charge for their product, but it is subsidized by donations of time and money and goods in kind. If we put a true dollar value and included all the startup costs etc into the price of it, it would be more expensive.
> The bottom line is: are mothers who donate to these banks (for profit) being swindled? I think not. This milk WILL be used to help a small preemie who may be saved from NEC and its sequalae. And without profit motive, prolacta might not have money from venture capitalists that it took to build a processing center and acquire the technology to create a wonderful product. I remember Maureen Minchin speaking many years ago about the importance of developing such a product and I'm glad someone did. I hope they can survive the crunch on both sides of this discussion, because there's nothing else out there like it!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lactation Information and Discussion
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:05 PM
> Subject: Had to share
>
> For those of you who haven't gotten this on Facebook:
>
> _http://justwestofcrunchy.com/2011/06/23/swindled-the-ugly-side-of-mil
> k-dona
> tion/_
> (http://justwestofcrunchy.com/2011/06/23/swindled-the-ugly-side-of-mil
> k-donation/)
>
> Someone has done her homework....
>
> Jan Barger, RN, MA, IBCLC, FILCA
> _www.grammiesawards.blogspot.com_
> (http://www.grammiesawards.blogspot.com/)
>
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