The National Alliance for Breastfeeding Advocacy (NABA) would like to make a
few comments regarding the recent discussions on breastfeeding and HIV. In the
United States, about 7000 HIV positive mothers give birth each year with about
418 of the babies at risk of acquiring HIV through breastfeeding. With a 5-10%
estimated transmission rate, 21-42 infants each year could become infected
with HIV in the US through breastfeeding. Because the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention has recognized this, the recommendation has always been
to avoid breastfeeding in HIV positive mothers. No one is burying their head
in the sand over this issue. It is serious and is being taken seriously by the
breastfeeding community. To say otherwise is misrepresenting the situation.

However, just because the mother is HIV positive does not mean that her baby
must be deprived of human milk. Women have options, even in hard stricken
areas of Africa. In the US, mothers can be offered options on how to use human
milk safely. Mothers have such options as:

1. heat treatment of their own milk: this can be done with her milk in an 8oz
canning jar, placed in a shaking water bath at 62.5 degrees C for 30 minutes.
This is what a milk bank does. Anyone living near a milk bank can have milk
pasteurized there, probably at no cost. For mothers not living near a milk
bank, labs or facilities with such apparatus can be used.

2. banked donor human milk can be used

Infant formula can also be used but is not necessarily the first choice for
all HIV positive women in the US. We must realize that the spectre of HIV has
opened up a new market for infant formula and that efforts are being made to
persuade the government and health professionals that infant formula is the
only possible choice in this situation.

There are numerous position statements on HIV and breastfeeding:
UNICEF
CDC
NABA
NAWD (National Assoc of WIC Directors)
La Leche League International
ILCA
IBFAN
and the newest working one from the United States National Breastfeeding
Committee.

That's right---the US now has a national breastfeeding committee in
fulfillment of the recommendation from the Innocenti Declaration. The US
Committee suggests that the following message for mothers be used:
Know Your Status
Know Your Options

NABA will make available a packet of all of these statements for a small fee.
Please contact me if you would like such a resource.

NABA
Marsha Walker
254 Conant Rd
Weston, MA 02193
781 893-3553
Fax 781 893-8608
e-mail: [log in to unmask]