Abstract :
Breastmilk feeding isthe gold standard. Formula milk is getting easy access due to ignorance of scientific principles, lack of commitment and efforts to promote human milk, besides unavailability of human milk banks. There is a grave need to create awareness for using breastmilk in health care facilities.
Risk of unpasteurized donor human milk is probably overrated.Donated raw milk given to newborn infants produces no ill effects including HIV transmission, as observed and practiced in Norway.
Bacteriostatic qualities of fresh milk resists bacterial growth. Bacterial counts reduce in fresh breastmilk over initial few hours due to phagocytic activity. Newborns fed MoM with high commensal bacteria count has no untoward effects. Thus pasteurization of MoM is not recommended. Unprocessed mother’s milk is choice of feeding pre-terms as often it grows only commensals on preserving. Suchinfants did not show higher late sepsis rates; had better fat absorption & growth; shorter hospital stay as compared to pasteurized donor milk.
Refrigerators are there everywhere so MoM feeding can be easily practiced with proper dissipation of scientific information on managing human milk. In resource poor and ethic restricted countries efforts are being put to use unpasteurized raw frozen donor milk after stringent donor screening. These observations and facts opens door to concept of raw human milk banking which has large scope in India. It is suggested that, before starting to donate, documenting two negative tests each for HIV, HBsAg and VDRL are desirable.
Keyword :
Human Milk Banks, Breastfeeding, Mother’s own Milk, Formula feeds, Pasteurized human milk