entropy You can ask MN to remove posts if you wish. Certainly a mistake could have been made and in that case I would like to get to the bottom of it as it's desperately important that this doesn't happen. Would you consider PMing me with some info?
What happens is that each milk bank is run independently within its own hospital. UKAMB generates guidelines together with NICE and representatives from the milk banks, and these are the guidelines that milk banks should follow - best practise as it were. If something has gone wrong it's really important that we know about it as it's terrible when a mother is put off by a milk bank for incorrect reasons.
UKAMB desperately needs funds because at the moment it's run by volunteers on an absolute shoe string and it can't do a lot of the things it needs to do. Without UKAMB there could be no milk banks, yet because it's a step back from the front line (ie it's not in the wards with the sick babies) most people, even those who have donated or have received donor milk for their baby, haven't heard of UKAMB.
Despite this, due to the incredible commitment of people, including those who have devoted 20 years of their lives to UKAMB, it has been able to encourage hospitals to re-open milk banks after they were wiped out after the AIDS crisis, and it continues to be the only central resource available to existing milk banks and to hospitals who have paeds who will use donor milk.
The focus of the charity currently is to raise awareness of the reasons why breastmilk saves the lives of premature babies, and therefore why milk banks are an essential part of healthcare in this country. At the same time we're trying to encourage more hospitals to open milk banks - and for more paeds to use donor milk even if it means getting it in from a milk bank in a different hospital, if they don't have one.
We can't do this without raising more funds. Thanks to Makes a Change we've got a real opportunity to make a massive difference to the way milk banking is available in this country. Please do consider making a donation so that Makes a Change will double it. Share the link on Facebook!
www.justgiving.com/makesachange-ukamb