Human Milk Banking and Sharing Lecture Pack

This session will look at how for profit corporations are seeking to aggregate, control and exploit human milk. In the absence of federal health policy and consumer regulation/protection, companies are emerging seeking to build commercial markets for human milk often under the guise of improving the economic status of women and infant health.
We will examine companies currently paying for milk both domestically and internationally and the implications for women and emerging policy both at the federal and state level.
Entities setting a price for human milk in the absence of supportive public policy may in fact undermine women’s biological integrity, infant health and contribute to the vulnerability of women and babies.
I will ask participants to consider the issues and to support models of community engagement and decision making that are women centered and women led that keep this biologically critical substance within the community from where it comes; supporting breastfeeding and benefiting women and babies.

In the absence of adequate banked donor human milk for distribution to all infants in need, many families choose to engage in the practice of Private Arrangement Milk Sharing (PAMS), partially facilitated through social media, to procure human milk for their infants. Evidence regarding the participant and infant characteristics, and risk abatement practices is limited. This presentation explores the state-of-the-science of PAMS, characteristics of recipient participants and infants, donor screening practices, and risk abatement strategies. Results are contextualized with a socioecological framework of factors affecting infant feeding practices. Influence of health care providers, lactation support, birth attendant, and sources sought during decision making and the impact of these influences on supporting families are discussed.

Successful infant feeding is crucial to the survival of babies and the human race. Throughout history and across the world, societies have had to address alternatives to maternal breastfeeding. We will present an overview of the history of infant feeding, including the forces involved in the decline of breastfeeding and wet nursing and the rise of “scientific” infant feeding, commercial infant formulas and milk banking. We will also define and discuss milk kinship practiced in Islam and throughout the Far East and Middle East. We will cover as well the forces and organizations involved in the rise of breastfeeding, milk sharing, and milk banking over the last 2-3 decades, and the social, economic and commercial forces impacting infant feeding today. We will conclude with a discussion of how history can help us understand and influence future trends.

Although Human Milk Banks are already more than 100 years in the world in Poland they are pretty new and young institution. History of breast milk sharing is well known, in times of war in Polish women sell milk on food market. Today we have a professional Human Milk Banks with international standards and very engaged in scientific work. Human Milk Banks working as non-profit institution, but from this year 2017 our government will pay and support all hospitals in Poland which feed premature babies and full time newborns - human milk (biological mother or from Human Milk Bank). This presentation will show the history of our banks, inception steps, functioning, obtaining Donors Mothers, cooperation with non-governmental organizations and the national health service in Poland.

Recently, much scientific inquiry has turned to the new frontier of the “microbiome", the many microscopic beings living commensally or symbiotically in and upon the human body. Breast milk’s contribution to the development and sustenance of healthy gut bacteria is immense, in that it not only provides bacteria for the initial seeding, but also contains an ideal nutrient base designed to promote beneficial flora while simultaneously discouraging pathogens. This presentation will explore the relevant theories and understanding of these processes.
We will delve into the long-term health outcomes associated with the microbiome, including obesity, diabetes, brown-to-white fat ratio, gastrointestinal concerns, and allergies. This presentation will also explore the impact of breast milk storage and pasteurization techniques on its microbiologic activity. Additionally, we will look at other aspects of the microbiome as they relate to skin-to-skin contact, vaginal birth and breastfeeding.
Finally, we will describe bacterial roles in infant neurological development, allergies, digestion, immunity, and future obesity. Healthcare practitioners need to be aware of the benefits of microbial diversity in order to effectively counsel new parents, especially those with infants at risk for immunological or digestive concerns.

Emergencies, whether natural disasters or complex humanitarian crises, often reproduce and exacerbate pre-existing health disparities. Mothers and infants within vulnerable, marginalized, and oppressed social groups are more likely to carry a disproportionate burden of perinatal morbidity and mortality resulting from emergencies as compared with those in privileged groups. Emergency response for pregnancy support, childbirth, and infant and young child feeding (IYCF-E) tends to address acute needs but often fails to support long-term and sustainable resilience to health inequalities and inequities. This presentation provides an overview of critical issues that influence social inequalities of perinatal maternal and infant nutrition in a global context, and then highlights the intersection with IYCF-E. A case studies approach will be used to illustrate key concepts. Although emergencies present numerous challenges to protecting maternal and infant health, they also avail unique opportunities to promote and support breastfeeding and human milk equity globally.