Hi Mandy,
On milk sharing you don't have to endorse it any more than you need to endorse formula feeding or indeed breastfeeding or banked donor milk. It's up to the mother to decide what she wants to do it really doesn't matter what you think about it- to attempt to decide for the woman by withholding information is unethical. I discuss this in some detail in a paper at http://media.clinicallactation.org/3-3/CL3-3gribble.pdf You do however, have a responsibility to share information with her to minimise the potential for harm. This might mean that you explore with this mum her own health and discuss with her hygiene in relation to expressing and storing milk. In my study of the perception and management of risks of milk sharing (a couple of papers are in press right now and should be available soon) I found that most donors did not follow recommended hygiene practices (and recipients almost never did anything to identify whether poor hygiene was likely to be an issue). Is banked donor milk a realistic option for a healthy baby in your city? In my milk sharing study no milk recipient had been able to obtain banked donor milk. I'm curious though why you thought that assisting this woman would violate the IBCLC Code of Practice? 
Karleen Gribble
Australia


On 11/05/2013, at 12:55 PM, Mandy Ball wrote:
> 
> The second mother I have spoken with is contemplating providing breast milk for her friend who has had breast reduction surgery several years ago and had both nipples removed and repositioned. She was advised that she may not be able to breastfeed. The mother (my patient) wants to provide a few moths worth of milk for them (she has a great supply). She is traveling soon and wants to maintain her supply to pump the extra milk for them and wants my advice on keeping her supply up. I am not sure how to counsel her. I think the other mother should notify the milk bank here (we have a great one in our city)  and obtain breast milk that way.  I am torn on how to counsel her! I feel endorsing milk sharing violates my code of practice as an IBCLC. I will be doing my own research on this as well before counseling, I just wanted to see if anyone has had this situation before. 
> 
> Any advice on these two cases is greatly appreciated. Thanks and Happy Mothers Day to you guys!
> 
> Mandy 
> IBCLC
> Denver , Colorado
> 
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