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-milk-dona
tion/_
(http://justwestofcrunchy.com/2011/06/23/swindled-the-ugly-side-of-milk-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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