Susan, I remember a great domed machine in which my parents would put 8 prepared bottles of formula for my brother's next day's feedings.  They'd then turn on the machine which would "sterilize" the feedings.  

Maybe those would come back on the market. . . or out of some attics?

Debbi Heffern
St.Louis, MO, USA


-----Original Message-----
From: Lactation Information and Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Susan Burger
Sent: Monday, 24 November 2008 8:17 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Informed consent and setting up systems

Dear all:

I've been enjoying the discussions about donor milk and the example of one family's 
experience with the worst possible outcomes occurring with each of the alternatives of 
was especially heart wrenching.   

It dawned on me that some of the problem with discussing donor milk are similar to 
those of discussing sexual activity among unmarried teenagers.  The NY Times OpEd 
section had an interesting column that presented the data on what happens with and 
without education about the alternatives.  The trend seemed to be that in countries that 
provided more education to teenagers about various alternatives and safety precautions 
the rates of unintended pregnancies, abortions AND lower levels of sexual activity at an 
early age were lower.  What I find with milk sharing is that women fill in the information 
void by going on the internet instead of being able to sit down with their health care 
practitioners and have a real thorough discussion of the risks and ways to minimize the 
risks.

Moreover, nowadays you have "test kits" for just about everything. On the one had, I'm a 
little squeamish about test kits, but the home pregnancy kits that were considered very 
scary many years ago are now readily available.  At the very least, all doctors should 
know what to screen for and what the pitfalls of screening and subsequent infection might 
bit.

In terms of "heat treatment", I remember that my mother used to know some method 
that she called "pasteurizing" milk --- and when my aunt talked about preparing "formula' 
for her children it sounded pretty close to "heat treatment".  We got our milk from a milk 
man and it sat out in the milk box until we picked it up.  We also had cousins who lived in 
Idaho and had a cow and had fresh milk.  So, while I basically now think of milk coming 
in cartons, I have vestigal memories of another time when that was not the case.  If one 
generation of women at least was trusted and even encouraged to do some form of "heat 
treatment" for milk, we most certainly could empower women to do the same.  Of 
course, I can envision all the gadgets that might appear in the baby stores to do it 
without thinking about it.

My point is that we should move forward to put into place systems that make it SAFER for 
women so that sharing milk is no longer an "underground" activity on the internet, but an 
activity for which there are appropriate safety standards that are acknowledged openly 
and discussed.

Best, Susan

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