Breast Milk Banking
In preterm infants, feeding with human milk (HM) is a very effective intervention for the prevention of infections and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), and for potentially improved neurocognitive and cardiovascular outcomes in the long-term. Hospitals and physicians are advised to recommend HM for preterm and other high-risk infants either by direct breastfeeding and/or using the mother’s own expressed milk.
Donor HM is the preferred feeding when the mother’s own milk is not available in sufficient quantity.
While in some countries donor HM has been considered an effective tool in the delivery of health care to infants, skepticism regarding its nutritional and immunological quality has limited its distribution in other countries.