This was on the list earlier this
year.....
Helen Cahill
Australia'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
No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG
Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.5.2 - Release Date:
28/02/2005
__________ NOD32 1.1017 (20050302)
Information __________
This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus
system. http://www.nod32.com
|
- [ozmidwifery] Human Milk Bank Helen and Graham
-