Breast milk exchange doctors warn against risks

Is the milk of strange mothers risky??

06/02/2014

Breastfeeding is considered by most experts to be the best thing for the baby. However, as not all mothers can give their children their own milk, there is now the Internet, the first German breast milk market. However, doctors warn against risks.

Breastfeed for at least six months
Scientists and midwives are usually in agreement when it comes to feeding babies: breastfeeding is best for the little ones. Even the World Health Organization (WHO) advises mothers to breastfeed their child for at least six months. But some women can not give their own milk to their child for different reasons. Other women, on the other hand, have too much milk and are willing to give it up. These circumstances led to the first German breast milk exchange on the Internet. Since January, the supply and demand can be regulated via the exchange.

Breast milk protects against diseases
The National Breastfeeding Commission at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) compared years ago the composition of breast milk compared to industrially produced baby food and evaluated the effects of different infant formulas compared to breast milk on the health of infants. Breast milk contains many substances that are not included in infant formulas and follow-on formulas. These substances lead to a lower probability of disease in breastfed infants. Exclusive breastfeeding during the first 4 to 6 months reduces the number of infections in infancy by 40 to 70% and reduces hospital admission of infants in the first year of life by more than 50 percent. For example, breastfeeding reduces the risk of lower respiratory infections in infants by more than 70 percent. Other illnesses that are less common in breastfed infants include middle ear infections, gastrointestinal infections, and possibly later overweight and diabetes.

Idea originated from personal experiences
The Breast Milk Exchange was founded by two-time mother Tanja Müller from Hamburg. The idea came from her own personal experiences. „At the first child it did not work out with breastfeeding and at the second I produced too much breast milk“, so the Hamburgerin. She tried to get in touch with other mothers in both cases, but in vain. This is now possible with the new exchange.

Expert warns against exchange
Although women who put their offers on the website point out that they do not suffer from certain illnesses or do not smoke, there is no guarantee for the health of the donor. Therefore advises the professional association of paediatricians and expressly from buying breast milk through such file sharing. Dr. Wolfram Hartmann, President of the Professional Association stated: „Breast milk is best for a baby, it contains all the nutrients in optimal composition, it prevents the development of allergies and infectious diseases and ensures a healthy development.“ But the doctor warns against taking breast milk, which was not tested by an official health control.

Mothers have no control
The doctor continues to consider: „Donors can take medicines or drugs that have contagious diseases like AIDS or hepatitis.“ If breast milk is purchased from such exchanges, mothers can not control whether or not the foreign breastmilk is harmless to their own child. In addition, the transport could greatly affect the quality of breast milk and make it inedible. There are no official controls on trade in breast milk, unlike food available in the store.

Milk banks to feed seriously ill premature babies
Banks with breast milk are not a completely new idea. In children's hospitals, they were quite common until the 1970s, but with the AIDS epidemic and the knowledge that the HI virus can be transmitted through breast milk, the operation of the so-called „Human milk banks“ Europe-wide almost nationwide. Now there are such banks again, nationwide there are currently eleven. The breast milk stored there, which is controlled just as strictly as a blood donation, is used to feed critically ill premature babies.

There is always a residual risk
Mothers of healthy babies are advised to weigh well whether to take the risk of feeding untested and possibly non-sterile milk. „Women who can not breastfeed are advised to use industrially manufactured baby milk. This can be fed without hesitation“, explained the Association of Paediatricians. And Professor Klaus Vetter, Speaker of the National Nursing Commission at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) said: „Milk is a bodily fluid, and there can always be something in it that should not be in it.“ One can never be sure that the milk does not contain unwanted viruses such as the HIV virus or a syphilis pathogen. „Even if women on the side state that they have been tested in pregnancy, there remains a residual risk“, so cousin. (Ag)