Human Donor Milk

[bethmmbnt]

I'm curious to know if any of you have seen an increase in the use of human donor milk in the NICU. I work for the Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas and we have seen a HUGE increase in the demand here. I was just wondering if that was a common occurence.

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

I work in NYC and I've never seen it. I think it's an awesome idea, but I've not seen it used, and frankly I'm not sure my hospital has a P&P for it in the first place. I'll check with one of our Lac Consultants, though.

[AliRae]

We had a patient recently who was receiving donor milk. I'm a PICU person, not NICU, so we don't see as much breast milk in general as in the NICU. We adopted basically the same procedure as in the NICU and got two RNs to verify and cosign the breastmilk before the little guy got it. Some were kind of freaked out about it, but I think it's a pretty cool idea!

[texas2007, BSN, RN]

During school, I actually got the chance to see how the donor milk is processed, tested and fortified with calories if needed. Pretty neat process but somewhat tedious. The milk bank claimed that there is a significant reduction in the incidence of NEC between breast milk and formula, but I'm not sure how true that is. It's also pretty costly, but I'm all for it if it improves patient outcomes.

The NICU where I did my senior preceptorship used donor breast milk, if prescribed. The process for checking it off was no different than regular breast milk, needed another RN to verify baby and med record number.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

We use it fairly frequently, both in NICU and in wellbaby, as we have pretty good access to a milk bank.

It's not quite as freaky as is sounds, really. I think the general perception (even among some of my coworkers) is that some random woman pumps her breasts, then gives the milk to the bank, then it's distributed to the babies who need it. In reality, women are screened, and rescreened, and (I think) get tested for HIV, HBV, and other things that can be passed in breastmilk. Also if she's on any meds, that's taken into account. The milk of several different moms is mixed, it's pasteurized twice, recultured, then frozen & the date placed on it so they know which to use first. Also, it's taken into account if the woman was/is pumping for a preemie or a fulltermer. Preemie milk is processed separately, as the needed nutrients & calories are different. It's a really interesting process. I had the opportunity to tour the local milk bank once and came away with a lot of respect for it.

Most of the donors around are moms who have had babies die but continue to pump as a way to honor their child's memory.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Also worth checking out: www.hmbana.org.

[bethmmbnt]

Also worth checking out: www.hmbana.org.

Wow - you pretty much said all I could have said and more! :) Our bank (as you can see by the site) is governed by HMBANA. It is a fascinating job and I learn so much each and every day. Right now, our struggle is to find enough donors to keep up with demand. We hosted the HMBANA conference here in Ft Worth this November and ever since have had even more neonatologists using it. Many of our donors are NICU moms who are producing much more than their babies are able to take, though we do have several bereaved mothers as well.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

We had one kid on donated MBM but then stopped because their insurance refused to pay for it. Nice, huh?

The research says that MBM does decrease Nec, but in the pasteruziation, some of the antibiodies and proteins are lost.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

We had one kid on donated MBM but then stopped because their insurance refused to pay for it. Nice, huh?

Wow, that makes me sick. Insurance refuses to pay for it, yet formula is given out like candy.

I wonder why we don't use donated EBM, I've never seen it used where I work

[Sweeper933]

I've never seen it used where I work, but I do remember a few times where we have donated milk to the milk bank. It was usually a case where the baby had passed away, or the baby had to be on certain types of formula because they weren't tolerating the breast milk.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

We had one kid on donated MBM but then stopped because their insurance refused to pay for it. Nice, huh?

We had a dad a few years back whose wife died peripartally and he wanted their son to get DBM. Insurance refused to pay for it, he fought it, and they won.