What You Must Know Before Feeding Your Baby Breast Milk From Donors

A US-based Twitter user, Chelsea godmother, has shared an interesting experience about donation of breast milk to mummies who couldn’t breastfeed their babies.

In a recent post, the mother of three narrated how she pumped breast milk for her 2nd and 3rd babies to the extent that she needed an extra freezer for storage and began bleeding in her nipple.

Her post read; “When I had my 2nd and 3rd babies, I was pumping more milk that my baby could eat so I would store them in the freezer.

“I was pumping a lot of milk per day that very soon, I started running out of freezer space. So when I started running out of feeding my kids, my mom suggested that I started throwing away the excess milk.

“So, I started looking for ways to put it to use. I saw a hospital that was accepting it for premature babies but they wanted me to travel down for screening which I couldn’t do at that time. So I stumbled on a Facebook group called Human milk for human babies, NY.I made my donation post on the page and moms bombarded with messages.”

But when THE WHISTLER shared this narration to  Dr. Edemawan Micah, a Lagos based medical practitioner, she  cautioned about feeding babies with stored breast milk.

She said frozen breast milk is valid for between 6 months to a year as long as it remains frozen, adding however that the milk could transmit several diseases if not properly checked.

“Breast milk can be stored in room air (like just leaving it in feeding bottle which is put in a bowl of water) and can last for 6 hours. It can also be refrigerated which can last for 6 months or stored in the freezer which can last for 6 months or even 1 year,” she said.

She however warned new mothers who have difficulty lactating immediately after giving birth to be careful about the kind of breast milk they procure from other mothers to give their newborns.

The expert advised that mothers shouldn’t be scared of procuring breast milk but ensure that to screen the milk before giving their infants, noting that unscreened breastmilk can lead to infections in newborns.

“The child stands the risk of getting infected with diseases that can pass through breast milk such as HIV , Hepatitis and Syphilis.

“So, I will advise new mothers to get tested so that they are sure of the breast milk and are sure that the donating mothers are free of diseases before accepting such donated milk.”

She listed other important things to screen for to include ensuring that donors are not intravenous drug users, should not have had a tattoo or any other permanent makeup in the last 12 months, and  should not have had blood transfusion or any organ transplant in the past 12 months.