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?

Depends if the breast milk is properly screened and how readily available it was.

Formula milk may well be better than breast milk from a woman with a really poor diet and/or lifestyle.

I think what gets people who ff backs up is the way mums who bf go on and on and try and make out that by bf, your dc will be immune from everything bad in life. Or at least it seems that way. Then they egnore it when people quite rightly point out that genetics, environment, parenting and diet are all factors in dictating someones overall health.

Gwendoline that is awful . LLL would be good people to talk to to 'debrief' you , I think they call it... boo hiss to bf support from the NHS sometimes!

"Formula milk may well be better than breast milk from a woman with a really poor diet and/or lifestyle."

Honeybee, that is just not true...

Not at all Gwendoline! :) contacting LLL sounds like a really good idea.

Honeybee - even bm from malnourished women has everything the baby needs. The body takes what it needs to make the best bm for the baby.

I live in an area of Scotland without a human milk bank (there is only one in Glasgow, so most people in Scotland probably do).

Therefore, should I experience any problems breastfeeding my baby due later this year the only other option will be formula.

I'd take the third best option (donated and screened milk from another human being) over the fourth best option (artificial milk made from a completely different species) any day of the week.

And yes, I did contact my MSP about it very recently, and he did raise it in the Scottish Parliament but because of budget constraints there are no plans to open any more milk banks(which I would have been more than happy to donate to) and there are no plans to extend the service at Yorkhill on a national basis.

Very frustrating.

So the millionaire child is going to be less healthy then the poor, bf child.

Healthier in what way exactly?

The world might be a better place if we didn't think that economic wealth is worth more than being breastfed.

"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. "

Erm... where do you think cow's milk comes from? Giant sterile robots in the shape of a cartoon cow?

I wouldn't want to feed my baby donated milk. I think I'd feel bad enough about not being able to feed my baby without having to rely on some ubermum to provide me with what I lacked. It's a completely irrational way to think, I know that, but I still don't think I'd use it.

oh my word thinking about that as i am sitting here munching cereal makes me feel sick. i am eating the fluid that has been in inside a cow?!

That is of course a hypothetical average millionaires child and poor child. There will of course be some unhealthy bf and some healthy ff in every facet of society, but this is about the population as a whole.

I know I mean how dare these people think that giving their dc a warm, clean environment and healthy, well balanced diet will make their dc healthy. Why bother with all that when you can just bf them and let them live in a cold, damp shit hold and feed them junk food.

Ruby - try not to think about it! It is funny how we've all become so conditioned to using cow's milk but if you suggested pouring breastmilk over your cereal...... :)

I'm sure when blood transfusions started to be used, many people thought it was 'weird' or wrong in some way.

Now it's an accepted part of any healthcare system (apart from specific groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses, obviously).

I think in time if human milk banks become more widely available it will become more accepted.

I've found a lot of people simply didn't know you could receive/donate human milk either so hadn't even started to think about whether they would or they wouldn't - and that included the staff of my MSP's office.

Sweden has 27 milk banks and a strong culture of breatsfeeding - coincidence? I don't think so.

Sigh - mrssparkle no one is saying that. Try comparing a poor ff child to a poor bf child if you are going to try to make those types of comparisons.

MrsSparkle, the ff child will be healthier with a nice environment than a ff child not in a nice environment
All these factors are important.

Ruby "The world might be a better place if we didn't think that economic wealth is worth more than being breastfed."

OMG that is completely insane. Try telling that to someone who is starving due to poverty or doesn't see their children because they have to go and work in a different country.

That scientific "research" is bollocks. There is no way you could link the reason for someones high blood pressure was because they weren't bf. High blood pressure is caused by genetics and life style. Some people will believe anything to try and prove a point.

The stem cells in BM include, for example, immune stem cells, which can pass through babies' porous gut and enter the babies' circulation. (links to the evidence on p16)

There they could differentiate into all the different types of immune cells (white blood cells etc), boosting the babies' immunity.

I think this is the most fantastically interesting thing Ive read all day!

I don't think it's wierd or wrong, in fact I'd be quite happy to donate milk (which is wierd as I wouldn't use donated milk myself). But I do think that there is an emotional element to infant feeding that means some women who can't breastfeed would struggle if their DC's were fed someone else's milk.

How could you link the reason for someones high blood pressure to genetics and lifestyle in that case. Or is that research as opposed to 'research'?

I was a poor ff child, I have a really good immune system and am never ill nor was I as a child. Best friend was a bf poor child and is always ill and picks bugs up really easily.

There you go.