I'm noticing a trend in negative comments about donated human milk, 
which I find interesting as a few months ago there was a trend to 
discuss cross-nursing, and wet-nursing as a few articles had appeared.  
In a world where most mothers in our hospitals have gone through a 
gazillion tests for disease during the pregnancy, I've seen comments 
about using human milk from other mothers being the equivalent of 
engaging in unsafe sexual practises on your child's behalf. 

Two ways to look at it: as the profile was raised a few months ago, 
natural human curiosity is just arguing out all the variable factors, 
and discussing them openly.  Or, in a world where breastfeeding rates 
are slowly on the rise, the need to place distrust in the competing 
'product' increases.   Building on that, it may be that as recognition 
of the risks of formula become more widespread (I'd argue this is the 
case - slowly but surely) financial interests in formula dictate that 
you must then switch to talking about the 'risks' of human milk?   It's 
not too big a step to connect the rise in use of donated milk with a 
drop in formula use - and therefore in profits from formula use.  
Particularly as the industry has just spent so much money developing its 
'preemie' ranges and then marketing them.

Given that examples such as the one below are starting to pop up, I 
think we might have to look at the language we're using to discuss 
'risk' on human milk.  Any soggy thinking or unclear areas in our own 
discourse, is just going to become another huge stick to beat us all 
with. And I do think we have very unclear messages, as a community, 
about cross-nursing, wet-nursing and donated milk.   Which probably 
reflects that as a community, we have widely different, and sometimes 
directly opposing, views.

The idea that donated milk needs 'making safe' before it can be given to 
babies is becoming quite a pernicious concept.  This is a very complex 
issue on the nature of risk, that is being boiled down, as always, into 
stark statements.  At one end of the spectrum, there are things that can 
get into milk, and babies, that you wouldn't want them to have.  At the 
other end, the safest and most life sustaining and nourishing substance 
a baby can have, is being rejected from ill founded fears.  Once again, 
this natural substance needs to be taken into the realm of science in 
order to make it 'safe' - you just can't go about taking milk from one 
mother, and giving it to another baby, without _scientific_ 
intervention.  And that's just the milk itself, before we get to the 
problem of it being directly on tap from another woman's breast.  What a 
huge loss of power, to those invested professionals, if mothers take the 
power into their own hands and just get on with it: let's scare the crap 
out of them about the dangers they are putting in their baby's paths.   :-(

Sometimes in all battle grounds, the tiny issues being waged on the edge 
of the arena, become the most powerful in terms of outside perception.  
At its most base, as I've suggested, formula interests will pick up the 
tiniest problem and use it as a rallying cry for their own forces.  
Perceptions about donated milk, cross-nursing and wet-nursing are 
changing, and whilst we probably see three different things in that, 
many of those on the outside lump them together as the same issue.  
Somehow, our discourse must find a way to discuss real risks, and place 
them in context, whilst refuting such nonsense.

What an interesting dance this is going to be.....

Morgan Gallagher


gonneke van veldhuizen wrote:
> I heard a troublesome report from a mom an a bulletinboard about some peds and gynecologists in eht hospital (somewhere in the Netherlands) that donated human milk is a possible health risk because the antibodies of an other woman may decrease a babies' ability to fight infections.
> >From the area the mom is presumably from and the type of hospital she refers to (academic teaching hospital) I fear that one of the docs is one who is known for collaborating with one of the major local formula brand manufacturers. He does lots of research that is paid for by said company. Mostly about health protective factors in infant feeding.
> The mom concerming has one of the rare conditions that prevent her from breastfeeding. A nursing friend offered to share her milk, but said docs talked both mom and donor out of it and they even got a LC to support them.
>
> Troubled greeting from hot and sunny southern Netherlands,
>
> Gonneke, IBCLC, LLLL
>   

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