Apologies for the cross-post...
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/12/1092102573402.htmlAustralia's
first milk bank
August 12, 2004 - 1:06PM
Australia's first milk bank
is to start offering breast milk to new
mothers in Victoria from the
beginning of next year.
Melbourne-based lactation consultant Margaret
Callaghan plans to open
the private service which will pasteurise milk
donations and offer them
to mothers who cannot produce enough for their own
babies.
The proposal has raised questions about how the new service
would be
regulated.
Ms Callaghan said the private company setting up
the Victorian milk bank
planned to set up in NSW next and then to establish
clinics nationwide.
She said new mothers who wanted to donate would be
screened for disease
and would then express the milk at home.
"It
wouldn't be like a cow shed," she said.
The milk would be pasteurised
and given to premature babies whose
mothers for some reason could not
provide enough milk.
Premature babies would be targeted initially as
they were the most
likely to suffer necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), or
bowel blockages,
after being fed formula, she said.
Mothers milk
also aided neurological development and reduced the risks
of infections, Ms
Callaghan said.
Hospitals used to provide excess milk from new mothers
to babies who
needed it until the rise of the spectre of AIDS in the
80s.
Ms Callaghan said that as the average age of mothers increased, so
had
the demand for breast milk.
"I have people ringing me saying
'Where can I get some human milk
from'," she said.
The president of
paediatrics and child health of the Royal Australasian
College of
Physicians, Professor Don Roberton today said any move to
make breast milk
more available was positive as long as the milk was
properly screened for
disease.
Professor Roberton said human milk had advantages over
formula,
especially for premature babies.
"But we also have to be
very aware of any potential risks that might
occur with human milk," he
said.
Breast milk would need to be carefully screened in the same way
donated
blood was, he said.
Breast milk banks operate in the UK, the
USA and parts of Europe but the
prospect of them opening in Australia has
raised the question of who is
responsible for their regulation.
A
Therapeutic Goods Administration spokesman said a breast milk bank
would be
a state rather than a federal responsibility.
A spokesman for the
Victorian Department of Human Services said a breast
milk bank would come
under the State food act.
The operators would have to show their
product was "free of infection
and fit for human consumption" and convince
the government that they had
strict screening processes in place, he
said.
- AAP
