[Breastfeeding] How Does Milksharing Work?

If you couldn’t breastfeed, would you look to give your baby donated human milk, formula, or something else? What are the risks and different options of milksharing? If you have an oversupply, would you consider donating? Amber Mccann is here to help us with these not-so-clear-cut questions, in this episode of the Birthful podcast.

 

 

What we talked about:

• What is milk sharing about?
• Where does the milk come from?
• The 4 pillars of safer milk sharing
• What are the risk factors
• To home pasteurize or not, that is the question
• What milk banks are all about
• Got extra milk? Where to donate

 

Related resources*:

Groups facilitating milksharing and raising awareness:

• Human Milk for Human Babies
• Eats on Feets
• MilkShare
• Cafe Moms Milksharing
• World Milksharing Week

Milk banking resources:

• Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA)
• Three Rivers Mother’s Milk Bank

Policy documents:

• World Health Organization Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding
• La Leche League’s Guidelines on Human Milk Sharing
• US Food and Drug Administration: Use of Donor Human Milk 

Other resources we talked about:

• How can breastmilk be pasteurized at home? – from Eats of Feets
• Flash-Heating Breast Milk – video from the UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health
• Breastmilk: the movie
• Salma Hayek on Why She Breastfed Another Woman’s Baby

Setting the record straight: It turns out, Neil Patrick Harris was on talking about the breastmilk he got for his daughter on The Late Late Show, and not the David Letterman Show.

Even more cool stuff on milksharing and milk banks:

• Supporting Families in Milksharing as an IBCLC (Amber McCann)
• Sharing Breastmilk: What’s Right for You? (James Akre)
• Milk Sharing, Shmilk Shmaring (Suzanne Barston)
• The Boob Group: Low Milk Supply – Donor Milk, Milk Banks, and Formula
• Move Over Milk Banks: Facebook and Milk Sharing (Time)

 

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About Amber McCann

Amber McCann is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant who fell into her line of work by accident. After struggling with feeding her own kids and slogging through the grip of postpartum depression, she felt strongly that all that pain needed to be for good. She pursued what she initially suspected would be a lovely hobby, and turned it into the career she never knew she wanted.

She has provided guidance and support for a number of birth and breastfeeding organizations, including the GOLD Conferences, Hygeia Breast Pumps, and Lactation Education Resources, as well as maintaining a busy private practice.

She is a frequent guest blogger for popular websites such as The Leaky Boob and Best for Babes as well as serving as an expert for Fit Pregnancy, New Parent Magazine, The Boob Group, and Science and Sensibility, the official blog for Lamaze International.

Her current gig is at ILCA, which is the International Lactation Consultant Association, where she works to market and promote breastfeeding and lactation consultant practice on a global scale.
Check out Amber’s website at AmberMccann.com and, while you’re there, connect with her social media, or shoot her an email at amber [at] ambermccann [dot] com.