Does anyone know that there is a milk bank similar to a blood bank in Brisbane?
A few days ago I attended a very interesting talk by Dr Pieter Koorts, director of the Grantley Stable Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital and founder (November 2012) of their milk bank.
As the name suggests, and similar to a blood bank, EBM (expressed breast milk ) is donated, processed and used for the very fragile pre-term infants when their own mothers are not able to produce the full quota of milk required for their baby.
The milk bank processes the donated milk under very strict guidelines including ISO22000 food safety management accreditation.
Here are some interesting statistics:
Approximately 30% of mothers are unable to fully supply milk their pre-term infants require.
Human milk has been shown to decrease the occurrence of NEC ( Necrotising enterocolitis), a condition not uncommon in pre-term babies which is a serious and often fatal complication.
It costs $400 to produce 1 litre of human milk ready for consumption for these babies.
In in Brazil there are 217 milk banks. Last year 166000 women donated milk.
In Australia:
Perth (2006), Melbourne(2010), Brisbane (2012), Northern NSW/Tweed & Sydney have milk banks
The RBWH milk bank has had about 320 donors from opening 5years ago, has pasteurised 3200 litres and supplied over 1000 babies.
Here is some REALLY IMPORTANT information:
The milk bank accepts frozen (up to 3 months) EBM from lactating women who have been breastfeeding for 12 months or less.
Outlying areas such as Townsville can accept EBM.
Donors (as with blood donation) are screened very carefully-these babies are already at risk, so every step is taken to give them the best possible outcome.
If you think you would like to find out more or consider donating, please follow the links below. Even if you are not located in a major city, you may be able to donate. Either share this post or the links as far and wide as you can.
https://www.facebook.com/queenslandmilkbank/?tn=K-R&eid=ARD4euEMjcZzq7k_SwMtUcGqcq5udgjhZnfxpt2O1nE3lqQ1sVbo8P-HOcuJQdevQTToHOpx5YtlwlKR&fref=mentions
If you have any questions or there are any topics you would like to see in future posts please don’t hesitate to get in touch.