Response from New York State (now below!):
 
Thanks for this excellent summary of the issue, Nancy.

To provide a perspective from another state, New York's regulations
governing milk banking (Section 52-9 of the NY Code of Rules & Regulations
- Title 10, Health) explicitly exempts collection of milk to be fed to the
woman's own infant.  Here's the regulation's definition of a milk bank:
Human milk bank means an organized service for the selection of donors and
the collection, processing, storage or distribution of human breast milk
for infants or children other than the donor's own infant.

Elsewhere in the code is a long section spelling out requirements for
perinatal services in hospitals (405.21).  I assume that the California
regulations have a similar section.  It seems to me that that would be the
more appropriate context for regulating the handling of mother's milk to be
given to her own infant.  Mother's milk is significantly different from
other kinds of autologous tissue in the amount of antibodies and other
anti-infective components it includes.  And the donor-recipient
relationship is unique:  the baby has just spent months awash in any
infectious agents the mother is carrying.

We haven't felt that regulation of mother's milk handling was necessary at
all.  Our hospital code is silent on the subject.  We recently finished a
complete review and update of the perinatal regs, including extensive input
from clinical and public health colleagues.  Nobody recommended adding
rules about that.  During my tenure here (since '92), we've never had any
reports of inappropriate handling of milk.

Please let me know if you have any questions about our experience.

Mary

Mary Applegate, MD MPH
Medical Director
Bureau of Women's Health, NYSDOH
Corning Tower 1882, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY  12237
518.474.1911
518.474.3180 (fax)
[log in to unmask]

 
Nancy E. Wight MD, FAAP, IBCLC
Attending Neonatologist,
Children's Hospital & Health Center, and
Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women
Medical Director, Sharp HealthCare Lactation Services

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