Human Milk Bank in the Institute for the Care of Mother and Child. Processing of Human Milk

Overview

Objective:
Presentation of the work of the Human Milk Bank in the Institute for the Care of Mother and Childin 1991 - 2000.Type of study: Retrospective analysis of data and results of ten years’ activity and description of the approvedprocedure of collection, processing and use of human milk provided by donors.Method: Mathematical analysis of assembled results.Milk processing: The authors describe the procedure of the organization of human milk donorship and theapproved procedure of collection, processing, distribution and use of human milk. This procedure has been usedwithout causing any problems for several years in the Human Milk Bank of the Institute for the Care of Motherand Child.Results: In the course of 10 years there were 327 women donors of humanmilk in our bank. During this perioda total of 8747 litres of human milk from donors was processed and used. This corresponds to a mean annualamount of 874.7 litres. The mean age of the donors during this period was 27.22 ± 4.75 years. Part of the briefpaper is also a review of the recommended and approved procedure of collection, processing and use of humanmilk from donors.Conclusion: The objective of the Human Milk Bank is to ensure adequate nutrition for those neonates andinfants whose mothers for various reasons (on the part of the mother or infant) are unable to breastfeed their ownchild. The presented results give an account of ten years activity of the Human Milk Bank in the Institute for theCare of Mother and Child in Prague and of the achieved results - number of donors, amount of collected milk.

Key words:
human milk, breastfeeding, Human Milk Bank, collection and processing of human milk, organizationof donorship