Using donated breast milk with a preemie

[bright_eyes]

My brother and SIL had their baby 9 weeks early. Mom is unable to breast feed as she got severely sick after the birth and has no milk. She wants to be able to give the baby donated breast milk but the nurses at the hospital are saying that they can't because it would need to be pasteurized. There are no milk banks here, it would just be donated milk from people I know.

Has anyone with a preemie in NICU used donated milk that was not from a milk bank? How did you get the hospital to be willing to give it to your baby?

My brother and SIL have a meeting with a doctor tomorrow to discuss it with him and I wish I had some information that I could send them that might help their case. I was thinking about how the WHO says to use donor milk before breast milk but I'm not sure of what else might help.

So frustrating because I know that the people who would be donating do not have any communicable diseases.

[Lindsay1234]

My babe wasnt a preemie but was in the NICU for 3 months. We had donors throughout and our personal experience was that the hospital doesnt have to know its from a donor UNLESS the donor and baby are on meds.
Herbal supplements and certain meds in the BM would have been lethal to our baby so I found a donor on milkshare.com that was willing to be completely clean of all that stuff!
The other hospital in town was completely open to donor BM, but our wasnt. I just brought it in with labels and put it in the fridge!

Look at milkshare.com. They have a lot of helpful stuff!

[2boyzmama]

I had a friend deliver twins at 28 weeks, and she was never able to generate much of a milk supply. I offered some of my milk to her. After talking about it "unofficially" with the nurses at the NICU, she just brought the milk in and said "look, my supply is finally starting to build!" and no one asked any questions.

You do have to be careful, because preemies are much more susceptible to illnesses and reactions to contaminants. It might be prudent?? to flash-boil the milk, but I have no idea really.

If the mom is comfortable accepting the milk, then she can just "fib" and say that she was finally able to establish a supply (she might not want to suddenly show up with 30 oz though!)

[texmati]

Just a note-- I was surprised when my DH told me that his mom used to pasteurize all their (cow/buffalo) milk at home (in the village in india)-- apparently the pasteurization process is just heating the milk to a certain temp.

If pasteurization will make them more comfortable they can certainly do that at home.

Also, the HMBANA website has some information about the benefits of breastmilk for babies. I remember reading some where that the smallest babies don't need much to fill their bellies. I hope it works out for their sweet little one.

[texmati]

Found a link!

http://www.breastmilkdonations.com/Pasteurization.html

[phroggtrapp]

Our NICU found out we used some donated milk because a nurse noticed it was a noticeably different color than mine and that really shook them up. At that point they movved quick and ordered us some milk from a bank. So, keep in mind it may look different from one person to another - maybe mix a big batch to pasteurize or something?

[sbrinton]

Any chance the hospital could order some from a milk bank? Would their insurance cover it?

I know it can be hard work and not always possible, but your sister may want to look into whether she could try to induce lactation. If she is feeling up to it at least...