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Breast milk banks are booming - but would you feed your baby another woman's milk?
Raw breast milk is now being requested across Germany to keep up with growing demand

Breast milk banks are booming - but would you feed your baby another woman's milk?

This is partly due to the need for breast milk in highly specialised centres for premature babies, as studies have shown breast milk benefits premature infants in particular.

Milk banks are not a new phenomenon, and the first was set up in Vienna in 1909.

This peaked in the 1950s, before a trend towards formula caused the decline of the banks in the 1970s.

But several recent studies have demonstrated the advantages of breast milk compared to artificial infant formula produced from cow's milk.

For example a study by the German Premature Network found the risk of a baby developing pneumonia more than doubles when they were fed artificial milk.

This was discovered after monitoring 1,433 premature babies.

American studies have reached similar conclusions - finding that human milk not only reduces the risk for inflammatory bowel disease and septicemia (blood poisoning), but also acts as a stimulant to the development of the immature intestine and mental development of premature infants.

Matthias Heckmann, head of neonatology and pediatric intensive care at the University Hospital Greifswald, said: "Of course, it is best if mother's breastfeed their children themselves.

"But it is not always possible."

His hospital reopened its human milk bank in 2014, and asked for donations of raw, not pasteurised, milk.

This is because during pasteurisation, i.e. heating the milk to 62.5 degrees celsius, not only potentially infectious bacteria and viruses are killed, but also the immune and defence substances and biologically active substances such as lactoferrin - which are helpful for the development of premature babies.

Aleyd of Gartzen, representative of the German Midwives Association for breastfeeding and nutrition, said: "Human milk contains important substances for the development of the infant, which an artificial diet cannot provide.

"Women's milk provides babies with the right proteins, fats and carbohydrates and delivers immune substances, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, all of which are tailored to the human organism."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends mother's breast milk as a first choice when feeding newborns.

The WHO named human milk from another source as a second preference - ahead of artificial milk.

 

credit: express.co.uk

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