Human milk bank

A human milk bank, breast milk bank or lactarium is a service that collects, screens, processes, pasteurizes, and dispenses by prescription human milk donated by nursing mothers who are not biologically related to the recipient infant. The optimum nutrition for newborn infants is breast milk for at least the first 6 months of life.^[1] For women who are unable to breast feed or produce enough milk, pasteurized donor breast milk may be an effective approach to feeding.^[2] Breast milk supplied by a woman other than the baby's mother that is not pasteurized and informal breast milk sharing is associated with a risk of transmitting bacteria and viruses from the donor mother to the baby and is not considered a safe alternative.^[2][3] If pasteurized donor breast milk is not available, commercial formula is suggested as a second alternative.^[2]

Human milk banks may offer a solution to the mothers that cannot supply their own breast milk to their child, for reasons such as a baby being at risk of getting diseases and infections from a mother with certain diseases,^[4] or when a child is hospitalized at birth due to very low birth weight (and thus at risk for conditions such as necrotizing enterocolitis), and the mother cannot provide her own milk during the extended stay for reasons such as living far from the hospital.^[5]

The demand and use of human milk banks is increasing.^[6][7][8] The International Milk Banking Initiative (IMBI), was founded at the International HMBANA Congress in 2005. It lists 33 countries with milk bank programs.^[9] The World Health Organization (WHO) states that the first alternative to a biological mother not being able to breast feed is the use of human milk from other sources.^[10]

The primary and by far the largest group of consumers of human breast milk are premature babies. Infants with gastrointestinal disorders or metabolic disorders may also consume this form of milk as well. Human breast milk acts as a substitute, instead of formula, when a mother cannot provide her own milk. Human breast milk can also be fed to toddlers and children with medical conditions that include but are not limited to chemotherapy for cancer and growth failure while on formula.