>I often suggest banked breast milk for my clients if they can't use their
>own breast milk. The problem is most of these folks are VERY concerned
>about Hepatitis, AIDS etc and are afraid to use banked breast milk. I
>wonder how you all deal with this concern?

I tell them that blood banks and milk banks both screen donors.  But while
banked blood is not pasteurized, banked milk is, so that milk banks are
actually safer than blood banks.  Furthermore, banked blood goes directly
into the bloodstream, but banked milk has to get there through the
digestive tract - a much more circuitous and protective route.  (Granted,
the person who needs banked blood generally needs it only once, while the
baby who needs banked milk has an ongoing need and thus an ongoing
exposure.  But we don't generally get into that.  If the pathogens aren't
there, they can't be transmitted.)

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY