The fervent marketing efforts of the formula industry notwithstanding, it's pretty much universally acknowledged that breast milk is the ideal food for babies: It possesses crucial immunological properties and disease-fighting antibodies, promotes healthy brain development, and is linked to reduced rates of diabetes, obesity, asthma and SIDS.
Unfortunately, too often, the very babies who most need these benefits—preemies, low birth-weight babies, infants with severe medical conditions—aren't able to get it. A traumatic birth or other health issue might leave the mother unable to nurse. Or, in the case of premature births, the mother's body might not be ready to produce milk.
A century ago, an ingenious trend developed to help these babies: human milk donor banks. In 1909, the world's first milk bank opened in Vienna; a decade later, the first American bank opened in Boston. The coming decades saw the opening of more banks, which collected and processed donated milk and then passed it on to sickly babies.
Milk banks took a serious hit in the 1980s, though, thanks to fears about the newly discovered AIDS virus, which can be transmitted through breast milk. By the end of the decade, fewer than 10 milk banks remained in North America. Today, the Human Milk Bank Association of North America—a nonprofit organization that sets standards for milk banks—has 10 member banks in the U.S. and Canada, none of them in the Northeast (the closest are in Ohio and North Carolina).
That's soon to change. This spring, the Mother's Milk Bank of New England—the brainchild of lactation consultants, nurses and activists around the region—will open in the Boston area. It comes at a good time: According to the HMBANA, in 2005, its member banks dispensed almost 750,000 ounces of milk—a 45 percent increase from just five years earlier. The milk is typically sent to hospitals to be given to babies in neonatal intensive care units.
Naomi Bar-Yam, director of the MMBNE, attributes the increased demand to a number of factors, including the rise in premature and multiple births. She also points to the growing recognition of the superiority of breast milk, after a couple of generations in which formula-feeding had become the norm. "Breastfeeding in general is on people's radar screens as a public health issue," says Bar-Yam.
Milk will be collected from donor moms, who will undergo a careful screening process including blood tests. Donors will deliver pumped, frozen milk to the bank, which will pool it, pasteurize it and test it for any problems. "There are a lot of levels of precautions to make sure the milk going to our most vulnerable babies is safe," explains Bar-Yam. While freezing and processing reduces the level of some of the milk's healthful components, it's still far superior to artificial formula, says Bar-Yam. Ideally, she adds, the donated milk will be supplemented by whatever milk the baby's mother can produce.
Locally, moms interested in donating milk will be able to do so through Northampton Area Pediatrics, which will collect milk and then send it to the Boston bank. "I hope it will be a great resource to moms who have extra milk," says Tanya Lieberman, a Valley lactation consultant. "It's a horrible feeling to throw away milk."
Donors will not get paid for the milk; while for-profit milk banks do exist, they raise tricky ethical problems, including the potential for cash-strapped new mothers to deny their own babies milk in order to sell it. Even with the milk donated, though, processing and shipping can make banked milk pricey—$3-4 an ounce. That adds up, since a typical month-old baby needs about 25 ounces of milk a day, notes Lieberman.
Unfortunately, Bar-Yam notes, insurance providers typically don't pick up the cost. The milk bank hopes to convince both insurers and doctors (babies need a prescription to get banked milk) of the benefits of the service. "We're in a fairly conservative medical establishment," Bar-Yam says. "I think cost is a big concern. It depends on how you think of that cost," she adds, pointing to the long-term benefits of getting breast milk to vulnerable babies.
