What is a donor human milk bank?

A donor human milk bank is a service established for the selection, collection, screening, processing, storage, and distribution of donated human milk to be utilized for infants with specific needs.

 

What are the indications to use donor human milk?

Today, the main indication to use donor human milk is feeding of preterm infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units who do not have access to their own mother’s milk, particularly within the first days of life. Numerous studies have shown short- and long-term benefits deriving from the use of donor human milk for this group of infants. Improvement of feeding tolerance, reduction of the risk of infections and necrotizing enterocolitis are the most important short-term benefits. Prevention of hypertension, and diabetes are the observed long-term advantages.

Donor human milk use has been proposed also for some other clinical conditions: post-operative realimentation following gastro-intestinal surgery, severe food allergies, metabolic diseases, immune deficiencies, chronic renal insufficiency, and cardiopathies with failure to thrive due to feeding intolerance.

Finally, it becomes an increasingly common practice to use donor human milk also for term infants in the first days of life when mother’s own milk is insufficient.