And furthermore - if human milk banks were available in every major city, the cost of transportation would go down.  Human milk availability would help those mothers who for one reason or another have true lactational insufficiency - so that their fragile babies could have human milk also.  To lobby for expensive hmf's when there's not even an adequate donor milk banking system is like asking for everyone to have broadband available when some people don't even have telephones! 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nikki Lee
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 9:09 AM
Subject: Re: SGA premie

Dear Folks:

Liz Brooks was referring to the Prolacta company, that makes truly human milk derived products for the NICU population.

Their products are expensive, just as any blood products are expensive. The testing required to ensure safety and the processing (the milk comes in 4 different caloric strengths)  make it so. Would you want to be given cow blood in the ER because the human blood was too expensive? There isn't much difference between blood and milk.

The challenge here in the US is that the NICU budget drives the healthcare staff to use cheaper powdered fortifiers in human milk. Can you believe NICUs use powdered fortifiers that are not sterile, after the WHO recommendation in 2004, that premature and immunocompromised infants never receive powdered formula? The label of the powdered formula fortifier from Ross states "Allergy information: Contains Milk and Soy Ingredients"...just what you'd want your fragile premature infant to receive. Are parents given this information??

The other barrier is that the money an exclusively  human-milk fed premature will save (from earlier discharge, and reduced risk of various acute and chronic illnesses over its entire life span) does not go show up in the NICU budget. The savings go to the insurance money or the tax payers over a period of years, a problem of a fragmented system.

warmly,

Nikki Lee RN, BSN, Mother of 2, MS, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI craniosacral therapy practitioner www.breastfeedingalwaysbest.com

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