"I was wondering if anyone here is aware of any research discussing why 
donation of milk via a human milk bank is usually anonymous?"
Karleen Gribble
Australia
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Karleen

I know of no research.  Anonymous to whom?  The donors, and their medical 
histories, are very well known to the milk bank!  All milk banks will be 
able to determine the source for every drop of milk issued, should a baby 
fall sick after receiving donor milk and if an investigation is needed.  The 
milk bank should be able to show that the donor (or donors in the case of 
pooled milk) who contributed to Batch X was screened and tested according to 
the protocol, and that the batch of milk was tested.

In case this helps with looking for research, I wonder if anonymity is a 
hang-over from how organ donation/adoption of babies is or was handled.   I 
don't imagine there was research for that, just the usual "no-need-to-know" 
assumptions, but perhaps it was to reduce the potential risk of the donor or 
family tracking down the recipient and asking for compensation.

I suspect that anonymity is merely what happens for practical reasons, since 
milk bank staff would have little time to spare from their work to interact 
with casual queries.  In our milk bank, Muslim donors have often asked to 
meet the recipient's parents, which for practical purposes has not worked 
out even once, I think.  There is little way for milk bank workers to know 
in advance which unit of milk is going to end up with which baby, or even 
which hospital, let alone know that the particular units are about to be 
used and that introductions should be arranged.  As I said, record keeping 
between hospital and milk bank will allow a unit to be tracked back if 
legally necessary.

I'm really curious why you asked the question.... is this a brick wall 
you've been coming up against?  Is this something you are working to change?

I think it would be rather nice if the recipient parents knew where their 
baby's milk came from, and had the chance to say thank you if they had the 
time and energy.    Through our newsletter and blogs, we thank donors when 
recipients contact us.

Best wishes
Jacquie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jacquie Nutt IBCLC
Milk Matters
www.milkmatters.org

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