Thanks to my friend Robyn Beck, who knows that I want to do more writing, I got to write this piece about breast milk banks in Utah for AFP
In a world where sharing is so popular it has its own economy, women in Utah have a new item to contribute: breast milk.
The Mountain West Mother's Milk Bank had its grand opening in Salt Lake City this month with a mission to provide nourishing, human milk to babies whose mothers are unable. It is the first of its kind in Utah, the US state with the highest birth rate -- and therefore the greatest need, as well as a wealth of lactating potential donors.
Annette Thompson began donating in March after she had her third child, spending 10-15 minutes every three hours to pump. "This is my little piece of helping someone else. My body can do it, so I will do it," she said. Thompson had realized she was a prolific milk producer when she had her first two children -- she used to pump excess milk and save it in her freezer, before ultimately throwing it out as she ran out of space to store food.
A few years later, when her niece was in the hospital and needed milk, she learnt that donating was possible.
So when she had her daughter in March, she posted on Facebook to inquire if anyone needed extra. She was connected to the milk bank and after undergoing a health screening, including a blood test, Thompson became a donor.
Nearly 10 percent of babies born in the United States are premature, and the bulk of the milk collected by the bank goes to nourish infants in neonatal intensive care. Often when a baby is born early the mother's body is unable to produce milk, or not able to produce enough, so donor milk is sought.
Breast milk is valued above formula because it contains a range of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, immune factors, antibodies and stem cells. "It primes the gastro-intestinal tract, so those babies get protections from infections from the get-go," said neonatologist Mariana Baserga, who runs the University of Utah's neonatal intensive care unit. Since the bank began operating in October 2019, more than 550 local women have volunteered to donate their extra milk.
Once the bank receives milk from donors, it is pooled, pasteurized and then packaged in doll-sized three ounce containers to be shipped out to hospitals across Utah and neighboring southern Idaho.
Ken Richardson, medical director at the milk bank compares donating mothers to first responders and the military. "That's what they are doing, saving lives," he said. "It's an act of selfless service to pump and to provide breast milk and to do it for hours and days and months. "They do it without any payment. It's an act of pure love."
In the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic hit, it had a devastating impact on milk banks in North America and around the globe. At the time there were 50-60 milk banks in the USA and Canada. Within a very short time there there were only a half dozen left, “They closed overnight because people were worried,” says Naomi Bar-Yam, Ph.D., formerly on the Board of Directors of Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA). It was the catalyst that inspired the founding of HMBANA, which is the professional organisation for non-profit milk banking that sets the guidelines for protocol and procedures involved collecting and dispensing human milk. The epidemic highlighted the need to make sure that milk banking procedures were safe and would not transmit HIV or AIDS.
Bar-Yam says that HMBANA’s rigorous standards are used across the globe, making the United States and Canada leaders in the field.
Other countries with growing milk banking networks include India, South Africa and Brazil, where there are more than 200 human milk banks. The Brazilian milk banking model is being exported to other lusophone countries like Cape Verde and Mozambique and Angola.
Milk banking is growing in popularity in terms of the volume of milk dispensed as well as the number of recipients. More than half of the HMBANA affiliated banks have opened in the past 6 years.
While the protocols of milk banking are designed for the fragile babies in the NICU, more mothers are starting to request donor milk, those who are taking medication, have had mastectomies, and others who for various physiological reasons cannot breastfeed. Bar-Yam, attributes this growing success to research pointing to the power of human milk and the risks of not using it, ”It’s not only that breastfeeding and human milk are good idea, but also that formula can be harmful. That message has been received loud and clear.”
A three ounce serving of breast milk is ready to be shipped out to nearby hospitals from the Mountain West Mother’s Milk Bank.
Lab tech, Daniel Smith prepares three ounce servings of breast milk is ready to be shipped out to nearby hospitals from the Mountain West Mother’s Milk Bank Thursday Dec. 12, 2019 in Salt Lake City. For a baby in the NICU, there is nothing as nourishing as breast milk, which contains vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, immune factors, complex oligosaccharides (complex sugar molecules), antibodies and stem cells; it is effectively medicine.
Human milk donor Annette Thompson with her baby, Millie, the inspiration for her milk production at their home Friday Dec. 13, 2019 in Payson, Utah. Thompson, says she is “Blessed with a lot a lot of milk.” She has donated more than 40 gallons since she began donating in April 2019.
Hayes Collins born two weeks early, in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Intermountain Healthcare's American Fork Hospital Monday Dec. 16, 2019 in American Fork, Utah. Hayes’s Mother, Jenny Collins had difficulty producing milk due to stress of being in the NICU as well as since he arrived early, so he was fed with milk from the Mountain West Mother’s Milk Bank.