Many of you are interested in the question of whether or not donor breastmilk can be sent to Haiti. Here's an update from over the weekend on this question.
The International Breastmilk Project, which ships donor milk to South Africa and other countries, posted this notice on their website:
We have received an enormous amount of calls from mothers who want to donate their milk to Haiti. Due to the perishable nature of frozen breast milk, we must wait until the infrastructure is in the place to handle a donation.
When will you be donating breast milk to Haiti?
Currently the conditions in Haiti are not such that a donations would be possible, but things are changing each day. Once the infrastructure is in place and and we have a partner there who can distribute the breast milk, then we will do everything possible to arrange a donation.What can I do to help?
You can donate your breast milk through the Human Milk Bank Association of North America by calling 1-866-998-4550. If we are able to make a donation to Haiti, we want to make sure that the milk supply is available, and currently supply in the US is low. If a donation to Haiti is not possible, then the milk will be used in the United States for babies in the NICU and cases where it is medically necessary.
A Salem, Oregon newspaper reports that a drive is being conducted for breastmilk donations for Haiti through the Adventist Medical Center's donor milk depot. Prospective donors are being asked to call the Human Milk Banking Association of North America for screening.
Meanwhile, a Denver newspaper reported that the Mother's Milk Bank of Denver has a severe shortage of donor milk, due in part to the H1N1 virus. I wasn't aware of this, but they report that mothers who have either had or have been vaccinated for H1N1 have to wait for a period of time before they can donate. This has caused the donor pool to dwindle in recent months, and now their stocks of donor milk are running very low.
Bettina at Best for Babes spoke with Pauline Sakamoto, president of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, who has been in touch with people running orphanages. She told Bettina that “people from the orphanage are walking through the rubble and literally picking up orphaned babies off the street.” Bettina writes that Pauline is "urging relief organizations to especially focus on finding any surviving breastfeeding mothers, and to make them a priority for receiving food, water, and shelter so that they can begin tandem nursing orphaned babies." Read Bettina's excellent post here.
I don't want to rain on the parade here, but the more I think about sending breastmilk to Haiti the more I think it would have to be planned very, very carefully. Certainly, for babies who are orphaned and for whom a wet nurse can't be found, donor milk would be lifesaving and should be a top priority. But here are a few considerations: First, as the International Breastmilk Project points out, it doesn't make sense to send milk when there is no or unreliable power to keep it refrigerated. Second, any substitute for a mother's own milk can undermine her milk supply, leaving her less able to feed her own baby when the substitute is gone, so special care would have to be taken to protect mothers' milk supplies. That's why the saying "feed the mother, support her breastfeeding" is key here. Fortunately for Haitian babies and mothers, particularly in this emergency, Haiti has a strong breastfeeding culture, and the introduction of bottles and any substitutes for mothers' own milk has to be done in ways that don't undermine that tradition and infant health.
* Photo courtesy of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog? Subscribe here. Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here. Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes? Click here.