Cross-Nursing Controversy
Last May, a policewoman in western China was hailed as a national hero for breastfeeding nine children left orphaned or without mother’s milk after an earthquake. Here in the States, a recent online survey showed that 45 percent of American respondents find nursing another woman’s baby “disgusting” or “weird.” But “cross-nursing” continues to increase alongside the country’s growing number of breastfeeding mothers
Breastfeeding the baby of a trusted family member in a committed relationship has different ramifications than giving your baby breast milk from a donor you may have met only on the Internet. Still, doctors and lactation specialists warn mothers of the potential dangers of sharing breast milk—a body fluid, after all—from any unscreened source.
“It’s like having sex with someone,” cautions Amy Vickers, executive director of the Mother’s Milk Bank. “You have to trust all the people that the donor has ever trusted.” The only 100 percent safe way to share milk, she says, is through a milk bank, where donors are screened and tested and milk is pasteurized.
Courtney Adkins, a nanny, nursed the baby of a friend.
“Tommy had a hard time with a bottle, so I called my friend at work and said, ‘Is it ok if I nurse him?’” says the mom of two. When the baby’s mother replied that she’d already considered asking, Adkins provided her with blood tests from her recent pregnancy, and the matter was settled. Adkins will soon be watching Tommy’s new younger siblings and anticipates nursing the youngest.
Safe Milk Sharing
* Use tested, screened breastmilk. Contact the National Milk Bank
(www.nationalmilkbank.org) for information about donated breastmilk.
* If you can’t get a doctor’s prescription for milk from a milk bank, find donors through Milk Share
(www.milkshare.com). Screen potential donors for healthy lifestyles, and insist on testing for HIV, hepatitis,
herpes, syphilis, tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus, strep and staph.
* Choose a donor whose baby is near the age of your own, since the composition of a mother’s milk changes
over time to match her baby’s needs.
Donate Milk
Two Maids a Milking
1607 S. Escondido Blvd., Escondido
760-944-MILK (6455)
The San Diego Chapter of the National Milk Bank offers information and coordinates milk donations.
Donor milk is sent to Prolacta Bio Science, which screens, pasteurizes and fortifies the milk, before dispensing it to hospitals and medical facilities. Because safe human milk is so valuable to ill and premature infants, a prescription is required. Learn more at www.nationalmilkbank.org or www.prolacta.com.
_____________
Bonita author Patricia Wilkinson is the mother of two girls. She’s currently writing Grade by Grade, a reference book to help parents get the most out of elementary education.
