Yes, I heard the story, probably on the same station in Boston.
I think the issue is quite complicated and the news story was very
brief, leaving me with more questions than answers.
1. According the the report, this new company, whose name escapes me at
the moment, will be purchasing milk from hospitals and then processing
it and selling it for use by VLBW babies. This is a for profit company.
Are the mothers to be compensated for their milk? In this country,
people are not paid for giving milk, blood or other body parts and
fluids. There are sound ethical reasons for this. However, if this
company is a for profit company, perhaps the issue of payment of milk
donors should be revisited.
2. In general, it is, of course, a good thing that VLBW babies, and all
other babies get the mother's milk they need. I worry though about the
commodification of breast milk that this company represents. How does
this jive with efforts to help the mothers of these VVLBW babies to
build up their own milk supply? Throughout history, when a baby could
not get milk from his or her mother, for whatever reason, members of
the community made sure the baby was fed, by whatever means (and those
means varied by culture and community.) What does it say about our
society that human milk is provided by a company in California, whose
primary purpose is to make a profit. They are doing good work, to be
sure, but somehow this trend concerns me.
3. Will they be selling some of their milk to researchers who will be
working to improve artificial breast milk by adding a few more
ingredients that come from mother's milk? Are there any guidelines for
how to do this appropriately?
OK I'll stop now. This is a topic I have thought a lot about, but I'll
stop before I bore you all with my meandering musings.
Naomi Bar-Yam
On Aug 5, 2005, at 12:04 AM, LACTNET automatic digest system wrote:
> Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2005 20:20:14 -0400
> From: Elaine Mazgelis <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: banked milk to be sold for use by VLBW infants?
>
> Did anyone else hear the little blurb this morning on the radio news
> headlines?
> It was about how human milk banking will be purchased by some big
> company
> and the milk will be pasteurized and sold to hospitals for use by VLBW
> infants! I was amazed and very happy - I think.
> It was a classical music station, so it did not give a lot of detail.
> I think it's a good thing, right?
>
> Elaine Mazgelis, RD, IBCLC
> Cambridge-Somerville WIC
> Massachusetts, USA
>
--------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
[log in to unmask]
Researcher, Writer, Educator
in Maternal and Child Health
--------------------------------
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