Human Breast Milk Banks and Banking

In those rare circumstances when a mother’s own breast milk is not available, milk bank can provide the best alternative with pasteurized, screened donor milk. In the absence of the infant’s own mother’s milk, donor milk offers many of the same benefits of human milk for the infant, including: optimal nutrition, easy digestibility, and immunologic protection against many organisms and diseases.

Human milk is available from human milk banks upon physician prescription or by hospital purchase order. There is a processing fee charged to cover the expense of collecting, pasteurizing and dispensing the milk. Some insurance companies recognize that feeding human milk results in both short and long term health costs savings and offer coverage for the purchase of human milk from a human milk bank.

What is a Donor Milk Bank?

A donor milk bank is a service established for the purpose of collecting, screening, processing and distributing donated human milk to meet the specific medical needs of individuals for whom it is prescribed.

How does a Donor Milk Bank Operate?

According to the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), donor milk banks that are members receive milk from lactating mothers who have been carefully screened for health behaviors and communicable diseases, similarly to the way blood banks screen donors. Additionally, milk bank donors must:

• be non-smokers
• not regularly consume any medication (including mega-vitamins)
• not consume excluded medications or alcohol within the specified exclusion period

Milk is transported to the milk bank frozen. The milk from several donors is pooled after thawing, and then heat-treated to kill any bacteria or viruses. The milk is processed and then refrozen. It is only dispensed after a sample is cultured and shows no bacteria growth. Milk is shipped frozen by overnight express to hospitals and to individual recipients at home.

The milk is dispensed by physician prescription or by hospital purchase order only. There is a processing fee charged to cover the expense of collecting, pasteurizing and dispensing the milk.