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Are You and Your Baby in Need of Breastmilk?

Who may need milk?

In a perfect world all babies would have access to their mother's milk, the ideal food for babies. In reality this is not always possible. For many reasons, a new mother may be unable to give her own milk to her baby.

Mothers themselves may be seriously ill when their babies are born and consequently be unable to breastfeed or express their milk for their little babies. Other mothers may have had breast reductions and be unable to keep up an adequate supply for their babies. Another scenario would be a mom with twins or triplets who may not immediately be able to express sufficient milk. Some mothers endure the stress of being unable to visit or stay with their baby in hospital as well as the added burden of not being able to provide breastmilk during that time.

In all these instances Milk Matters would gladly provide donor milk to the premature baby while the relevant mother continues to breastfeed where possible and to express to establish and increase or maintain her own milk supply.

Should a mother be HIV positive, Milk Matters would encourage her caregivers to give her the option of expressing and pasteurising her own milk for her baby. Effective pasteurising, which kills the HI virus, can easily be done in hospital or at home with minimal cost implications.

Milk Matters is currently limited to supplying donor breastmilk to hospitals for premature babies and HIV positive babies with specific health problems. In the future we would like to increase our outreach to more infants and young children and provide many more with the gift of donated breastmilk.

Our Donors

Our caring donor mothers are required to complete a screening form, answering questions on lifestyle and health issues, and are screened for HIV. They are provided with written guidelines on safe expressing and storage of their milk, which is pasteurised before being distributed to babies in need.

Safety of donor milk.

If a mother's own milk is not available then donor milk is the next best option. Milk Matters is dedicated to providing safe, donor milk to babies in need. Points worth remembering include:

• All donated milk is pasteurised.  Studies have shown that pasteurisation kills any viruses or bacteria (germs) that may be in the milk, yet does not destroy the beneficial properties of breastmilk. It still provides your baby with immunity, vitamins, minerals and the other beneficial properties of breastmilk.

• Healthy breastfeeding mothers complete a screening questionnaire regarding their health status and are screened for HIV before donating their breastmilk.

• The containers provided for the mothers to store their milk in have been sterilised before use.

• Doctors recommend pasteurised donor breastmilk because:
  • Breastmilk is superior nutrition for babies.
  • Breastmilk is 100% natural and has unique properties that cannot be duplicated.
  • It is perfect for babies to digest.
  • It protects your baby against infection.
  • It has important substances necessary for brain growth.
  • It protects the gut from foreign proteins.
  • It allows for optimal growth.

Should you be interested in finding out more about accessing donor milk, becoming a donor or how to increase your own milk supply please contact Milk Matters.