Conference moira::parenting

    
    I thought that most milk banks had ceased to operate when it was
    determined that it is possible to transmit AIDS via breastmilk??
    
    cj/

    Have you called the hospitals?  I remember hearing about it when I was
    in Memorial in Nashua.

    cj,
    
    milk banks are still alive and kicking, but much more choosy about who
    they take, and in many cases are also pasturizing the milk.  They do
    require a negative HIV test, and I believe they try to deep freeze the
    milk for several months and another HIV test.  
    
    Milk banks will always funtion, because there are babies who will die
    without breast milk.
    
    meg

    I saw a special on CNN about it about a month ago.  I contacted St.
    Joseph's and they indicated there weren't a lot around because of AIDS. 
    I asked my pediatrician, and the closest he knew of was Worcester, and
    he suggested I make breast milk cheese with my excess!! :^)   chives
    would add a nice touch.
    
    
    

    
    re: .3
    
    I stand corrected.   I do believe that *many* milk banks have closed 
    because they do not have the funding or means to take the required
    precautions.
    
    cj/ 

    
    You may be able to just freeze it for your 'own' future use.  I froze
    milk for several months for Jonathan, and it helped a lot filling in
    times when he was in a growth spurt, and let him be on breast milk
    longer than I wanted to continue nursing.
    
    Maybe this is an option for you?  
    
    -Patty

     My freezer is getting full - did that already.  Thanks.
    
    
    
    
    

Call the one you already know about (Worcester).  They should know if
there is one in your area, or else be able to give you suggestions as to how
you can find out.

      Carol

    
    They may also be willing to come "get it".  I'm sure that some of the
    mom's in need wouldn't mind driving to get it .... What's a few hours
    in the car for the health of your baby??
    
    MAYBE the local hospital could help you out -- preemie baby's families,
    or moms who had to have surgery shortly after giving birth so can't
    breastfeed.  Not sure what the implications would be if you did this
    strictly "personally" (IF something 'went wrong' with the other baby
    later).
    
    -Patty

    Memorial in Worcester is the only local bank for breastmilk and
    the woman there that runs it is great.  She does not have a budget
    to have you ship it to her, but I heard her mention that other ones
    in the country may have (Colorado I believe).  Call her,
    Merriam Erickson at Memorial in Worcester -- she's great! (Also a
    lactation consultant).
    
    Maybe you could find somebody in the Worcester ARea that works in
    NH willing to transport it for you.

The Lowell Sun  October 27, 1995

By Jan Cienski
Associate Press Writer

Boston - Rhiannon Greywolf owes her life to Sara Leicht but the two 
have never met.  Leicht's breast milk, donated through a human milk 
bank in Worcester, has helped keep 16-month-old Rhiannon alive.

"She would have been in a hospital without the milk bank," said the
girl's mother, Linda Greywolf of Colchester, Conn.

She said her daughter is allergic to cow and goat milk and to all 
commercial baby formulas.  Greywolf, 45, is unable to produce enough 
milk on her own to feed her baby.

"I thought, I have all this milk and I might as well donate it to 
these poor little babies who need it," said Leicht, 34, of Westboro.

There aren't many milk banks, just eight in the U.S. and Canada, and 
they only feed about 2,000 babies a year, but human milk bank 
advocates say there are providing a service that saves lives.

"As smaller and sicker babies are saved, there is more need for a 
specific food for them," said Mary Rose Tully, director of the milk 
bank at Wake Medical Center in Raleight, N.C. "The least difficult 
thing for them to digest is human milk."

Worried about the possibility of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, 
being transmitted through a donor's milk, most of the country's milk 
banks shut down and most doctors stopped prescribing donor milk.

In 1985, the association developed strict guidelines for milk banks.  
Milk donors are screened in the same way that blood donors are.

Most specialists agree that processing reduces the likelihood of 
transmitting disease, but the heating and freezing also destroys some 
of the milk's most valuable qualities.

"There is probably a retention of about 50 percent of the beneficial 
properties," said Miriam Erikson, director of the milk bank at the 
Medical Center of Central Massachusetts in Worcester.

"We're between a rock and a hard place.  Doctors are afraid to use the 
milk unpasterurized but they also say the heat-treated milk doesn't do 
any good," she said.