Just found the article from two years ago.
Where is Margaret Callaghan now? I wonder if there were too many hurdles
to jump to get it off the ground
Helen
Australia's first milk bankAugust 12, 2004 - 1:06PM - AAPAustralia's first milk
bank is to start offering breast milk to newmothers 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.
- Original Message -
From:
Helen and Graham
To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 6:55
PM
Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] WA opens a
brestmilk bank for premmie babies
Does anyone know if the private milk bank in
Melbourne ever got off the ground??? It was on the list some time
ago.
Helen
- Original Message -
From:
Kelly @
BellyBelly
To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2006 6:35
PM
Subject: [ozmidwifery] WA opens a
brestmilk bank for premmie babies
THE
push to open a human milk bank in Sydney is gaining momentum.Specialists
in Perth are
spearheading an Australia-wide movement to reintroduce milk banks after the
emergence of AIDS in the early 1980s forced them to close.Perth's King Edward
Memorial Hospital For Women will start operating a milk bank at the end of
this month and another bank is preparing to open on the Gold
Coast.Sydney neonatologist Howard
Chilton said Australia and NSW were long
overdue for a human milk bank."It's not really been on the radar but
Perth is
putting it on the radar," Dr Chilton said. It has potential to save
hospitals money because it lowers the incidence of certain
diseases."Premature babies, whose mothers are unable to produce
enough milk, will be the main benefactors of the milk banks.Studies
have shown human milk is superior to formula and can improve a premature
baby's long-term mental and physical health.Despite the spread of
AIDS, human milk banks have continued to thrive across Europe and the
US.Dr Chilton, who has
set up a company to provide the pasteurisers needed to purify the human
milk, said Sydney hospitals had expressed interest in
buying the $60,000 machines.Biomedical scientist Professor Peter
Hartmann, one of the specialists behind the Perth milk bank, said production of milk
will "start off slowly"."We want to make sure we've got every step
working properly,&q
