Tina,
This is something that I've looked at. In the sample in my study the women donating milk either 1) Did not have a milk bank locally to donate to 2) Did not qualify as a milk bank donor 3) Required knowledge of their recipient in order to be motivated to donate (this I find really interesting) or 4) had philosophical objections to milk banking (such as recipients being charged for their milk or to pasteurisation of milk). Very few did not fit into one of these boxes.
Certainly some of the women in sections 3 and 4 might be able to be persuaded to donate to a milk bank with more support or info but milk banks would have to change how they operate in order to do so. 
That paper is almost ready to be resubmitted (it had an unfortunate rejection history- a new record for me, it was sent back in under 1 hour!- it's a very touchy subject in some quarters!)
The issue with HMBANA does not appear to be decreasing donations (data is not collected on the total volume donated so I can't tell for sure) but increasing demand. Truly the demand has increased enormously and it is no wonder that milk banks are having difficulty.
Karleen Gribble
Australia


On 25/09/2012, at 3:57 PM, Tina Revai wrote:

> I am glad this has come up again . . . I am hearing that the donations to HMBNA milk banks are down as a direct result of informal milk sharing groups like HM4HB.  Is this a worry or is this confirmed fact?
> Intuitively this does not make sense to me . . . kinda like saying that organic farmers don't want folks to grow their own food, b/c they will have less business.  Both groups actually value the same things and are more likely to springboard one another and overall one would expect growth . . . but maybe I have it wrong.
> Can anyone comment?
> Thanks,
> Tina Revai
> Port Alberni, BC, Canada
> LLLL, RN, IBCLC
> 
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