Milk Sharing VS Milk Banks

Many mothers find that they have a freezer full of breast milk after a year or two of breastfeeding and pumping. Most of the time, it just doesn’t feel right to waste all that precious, life giving food, even if there’s too much to give it all to the baby. So what can be done?

There are two main options for these moms. First, there’s the milk banks who are generally respected as providing safe human milk for sick babies. Second, there’s milk sharing. Casual milk sharing is frowned upon and discouraged by La Leche League and by milk banks, among others. It is seen as a potentially dangerous practice, if the mother who donates milk is infected with something that is spread via breastmilk. However, there is nothing wrong with working with a knowlegable doctor  who is able to help you to verify the safety of privately shared milk, and educates the mothers on how to safely handle, store and use donated milk.

Currently, there are only 11 milk banks in operation within the USA. All of them have strict standards for accepting milk. So strict, in fact, that some moms find that even their healthy milk is rejected because of these standards. Nonetheless, milk banks are very thorough in checking for health issues to prevent contaminated milk from reaching fragile, premature babies. They also pasteurize and pool the milk that comes in, which may help with both the flavor and the uniform content of the milk. Many people believe that pastuerization also makes the milk safer by killing bacteria, but that seems debatable to me, because of the immune factors in live milk.

All milk, even the safest, healthiest milk in the world has bacteria in it, but when you understand how the mother’s body actually pumps her immune sysem of living cells to fight bacteria into the milk to go to work for the baby, it makes less sense to kill the milk to destroy a few bacteria or viruses, as long as the mother providing the milk is healthy.

That is where milk sharing comes in. Through milk sharing, women can share their breastmilk outside of the strict policies of a Milk Bank. Friends who know each other often make the choice to share milk after investigating the health of the donor. Some mothers are even beginning to connect to each other via the web, sharing medical information and make the choice to share the benefits of breastmilk.

I once read a story about one woman who was taking a medication which would disqualify her from donating her milk to fragile premature babies, but it would not be harmful to older babies. Her friend also had a breastfed older baby, and took the same medication. When her friend’s milk started drying up, she was able to donate her stash of deep frozen breastmilk, helping her friend keep her daughter away from formula. 

Some milk donor recipients feel concerned about the bacteria or viruses in the milk, and they then choose to pastuerize the milk, just as the milk banks do.

Breast Milk from a milk bank is expensive and requires a doctor’s prescription. Selling milk if you’re not able to donate it to a bank might be tempting, but from what I’ve heard there are legal risks with the selling of human breast milk.

If you happen to have extra milk, contact your local milk bank, and if you can’t give milk there, don’t lose hope, you may still be able to help someone in need.

Likwise, if you cannot breastfeed your infant, or have other medical issues that can be addressed with breastmilk, talk to a doctor or midwife. And remember, Milk Banks need to be giving their milk to fragile infants who can’t find a way to directly get safe donated breast milk from a clean donor.

Please, support the milk bank in your area with money or milk, and help them save  lives. To learn more about milk banking and sharing, check out these websites:

Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA)

LLL Offers Guidlines on Human Milk Sharing

LLLI’s Position on Wet Nursing and Cross Nursing

Is it safe to share breastmilk?