to ask if you would use donated breastmilk if it was available rather than formula?

[bubbleymummy]

Inspired by another thread.

I personally would rather use donated milk. If you wouldn't - why not?

For a newborn yes, if properly screened.

For a weaned 9 month old eating wide range of food including dairy, no.

Yes!
Most definately.

in hospital yes.
At home, probably not. Can't imagine logistics of getting//transporting/storing etc (am trying to get to grips with expressing and storing own bm and seems so complicated!). Where would you get it from? How would you guarantee free from drugs etc?

But in principle, yes I guess so.

No, but I wouldn't accept a blood transfusion either unless it was a life or death situation.

Yes Adair, I think it would need to be screened. Do they do this already for milk banks? I envision some kind of delivery service - kind of like a milk man/tesco delivery in refrigerated trucks :)

Really depends on how effectively the milk could be screened. I ahve no idea about that - assuming there could be no guarantees then I would probably stick to formula, it does the job and it's nothing if not stringently regulated.

Yes, as I said on the other thread I want my human babies to have human milk.

I trust the word of a woman donating her milk over that of a formula manufacturer (as to the product's safety) and think the risk of contaminated BM is less or a risk than the long term effects of giving another species' milk.

Yes

Sunnydelight, I can't understand what benefits the pasteurised and screened milk of a cow has over the pasteurised and screened milk of a woman. Diseases can and are transmitted between animals and humans as well as from human to human.

No, unless it could be powdered. If it could, then yes.

Depends. As far as convenience is concerned then it's a bit of a no man's land. Both BM and formula are easy to deal with when away from home. However, going out for the day (unless freezing cold in the dead of winter), going away etc it would be impoassible to use.

Yes.

No, I'd find it weird. Even though I know I'm being stupid and rationally it would be far better for my baby.

yes

Definitely. I don't drink milk (or soy) as I don't like it and find the concept weird. People are so funny about breastfeeding yet happily put cow's milk (that they produce for their offspring) in their tea...odd. So I wouldn't feel comfortable giving it to my child unless there were no other options.

Soy is nasty stuff too in this case.

As long as it were screened for diseases, eg HIV, then yes, definitely.

Yes I would.

When ds was born I produced huge quantities of milk and became a donor for the local hospital. They used it in scbu.

no I wouldn't use it but I would certainly donate my own breastmilk to a baby that needed it.

Yes, assuming it was screened etc as necessary and I was confident that it was safe. Agree the logistics of it would be difficult but would be happy with it on principle.

Very true, taking chilled bm out for the whole day would be a pita.

I'm not sure. If it was free it would be a convenience issue, and need working on I think.

Realistically I can't imagine donated bm being plentiful enough to give away for free, and if you had to buy it I bet it would cost more than formula - there were some guys buying in bm for their triplets on 'other people's breastmilk' ages ago and it cost them a small fortune. We are a low budget household, I can't imagine being able to afford it.

I don't have a problem with using someone else's milk although it would have to be screened. I'm not trusting in these circumstances. ff companies have to prove their formula is safe, random lactating strangers would have to do the same.

golly, yes! tis a no-brainer i'd have thought.

why would anyone prefer to use 'donated' milk from another species?

Why powdered Chicken?

Surely that would just introduce the risks that powdered formula has with bacteria etc.

Cleo, only some components of bm are compromised during pasteurisation.

Gwendoline, bm can be kept at room temperature for about 6 hours iirc - probably less on a hot summer day though - maybe some kind of cooler thing when out and about?

I wouldn't. I would be worried about diseases which might not be picked up by screening. There have been blood products in the past, which haven't been screened properly or have had diseases for which there was no screening available at the time. With blood transfusions people had to have them because they were in an emergency situation. There is a good alternative to bm.

Yes, would definitely prefer it if logistics could be sorted out. I would want it screened too.

No Way, would go with formula. Accepting blood in a life or death situation is one thing but accepting a product from someone else's body is a non life or death situation is totally another.
I would have more 'trust' in the formula iyswim

Wouldnt donate my own either. Struggled enough to feed my own DD, cant imagine I could have any impact

Definitely if baby was prem or in scubu post birth for health related reasons. Definitely not post weaning age.
The middle bit? Feels a bit of a grey area for me for some reason - as someone says above gut instinct would be no but know rationally that's weird and not right.
In Southern Italy wet nurses were very, very normal until fairly recently. My ex's mum used to have what she called 'a milk brother' as she had been nursed by his mum too when her mum had struggled.