Execs in Desperate Need of Donor Breast Milk (part 3)
Posted February 9, 2010
Part 3. The Haiti Milk Mix-up
What happened to all the milk donated for Haiti?
Soon after I started this blog and got a Twitter account, I saw a flurry of requests for donor milk to save Haitian orphans (this was shortly after the earthquake). A press release asking for milk was "going viral" in the breastfeeding community - one from some very trustworthy sources, including La Leche League, HMBANA, and the ILCA. Like many, I was really moved by these requests and sorry that since my youngest is two and nurses mostly for comfort, I don't make enough milk to donate.
Later on, I started to see reports that donor milk might not actually be able to get to Haiti. After that, I read this great article in the Sustainable Mothering blog about why donated breastmilk may not be the best way to help Haiti - for numerous reasons: Haiti, Hell, Good Intentions, and Breast Milk Donations. So there was a big misunderstanding, it seems. That total disconnect is described in an article from MSNBC excerpted below:
from Call for breast milk donations in Haiti goes bust
“Tell them not to send it,” said Eric Porterfield, a spokesman for the American Red Cross. “I’m 100 percent sure we didn’t ask for that.”
The international Emergency Nutrition Network has asked one group, the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, to retract a press release this week that issued an “urgent call” for breast milk for orphaned and premature infants in Haiti, saying the donations contradict best practices for babies in emergencies.
Such donations pose problems of transportation, screening, supply and storage and create an “unfeasible and unsafe intervention,” according to a statement from the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, or OFDA.
Simply trying to fill a need
Pauline Sakamoto, executive director of HMBANA, said the group was simply trying to help fill a need, if not in Haiti, then elsewhere. Donated milk that doesn't make it to Haitian babies will be diverted for use in the U.S. and Canada, she said.
“We don’t want to waste an ounce of milk. It’s very precious,” she said, adding.
The confusion started earlier this week when the milk bank group and several organizations — including heavy hitters like La Leche League International — urged nursing mothers to donate milk. While representatives for aid agencies such as the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and World Vision said there never was a need for donated milk, some agencies said they heard from workers at orphanages in Haiti who indicated that babies were going hungry.
“This was very grass roots,” said Amanda Nickerson, executive director of the International Breast Milk Project.
So maybe this was all just a big misunderstanding. Or maybe the visceral reaction a nursing mother has to the type of horrific images of human suffering caused by the earthquake in Haiti was seen as an opportunity to stock up on milk (a point raised by blogger Valerie McClain). I trust the organizations who signed off on the original press release had the earnest intent of helping Haitian orphans. But who got that release underway? Was it really "very grass roots," as the director of the Prolacta-partnered IMBP stated? Perhaps it was. It certainly was a big misunderstanding.
My concern is that the breastfeeding institutions and banks involved should have made more detailed plans and policy agreements with those on the ground in Haiti before sounding the call-to-boobs. The thing that really bothers me is the idea that - hey, no big deal because "donated milk that doesn't make it to Haitian babies will be diverted for use in the U.S. and Canada."
That's the same type of thinking behind showing donors pictures of needy children (in Africa or in the NICU) and then using their milk to make an unmentioned product that's sold by an unmentioned company (see the previous post, Part 2).
Potential milk donors should not be told whatever it takes to get them in the door (or on the pump). They should be respected as valued members of the process that brings breast milk or breast milk-derived therapeutics to those in need.
This means banks should do their homework and provide a complete description about where the milk is going. Fully inform and include breastmilk donors and the public- don't just show them pictures of sick babies and call it a day. This applies to the Haiti solicitation, to Prolacta collection banks, and to any milk banks. Women who donate breastmilk are handing over liquid gold (see Part 1), and they don't need to be tricked or manipulated, they need to be respected.
Next, Part 4: Will informing breast milk donors about the manufacture of costly therapeutics from their milk mean paying them as well?
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Comments
Regarding Part 2 and
Regarding Part 2 and Prolacta's milk banks, the connection to Prolacta is on the website - the same intelligent mothers you reference who can understand how milk is processed can also figure out how to click through the website to Prolacta's information and 'frequently asked questions' page.
I do agree about the milk donations to Haiti. Many of us would like to know what happened to all of the milk collected through the HMBANA/IBMP partnership. Are they selling any of the milk in the U.S.? are they making any profit from the milk? How much did they collect? Based on my own research and reviewing IBMP's website, they are not working with Prolacta for the Haiti milk request - they are working solely with HMBANA......i am sure many would find this surprising since we are so ready to blame the big, bad pharma for any misguided acts.
Look forward to Part 4 -- i hope there is a comparison about why blood donors to Red Cross should be paid, since the Red Cross also sells the donated blood they collect to pharma - do donors know that? or perhaps it is clearly on their website?
Prolacta milk banks and who's to blame for the Haiti mix-up
Hi Lindsay,
Thanks for your comment. As for Part 2 and Prolacta visibility on the websites of most Prolacta-run milk banks, I feel that a brief mention of a "processing partner" or "sponsor" is not enough. A milk bank that collects donor breastmilk for Prolacta is a Prolacta collection facility, not an organization that provides milk to needy infants. I find statements like this, from the National Milk Bank's homepage, misleading:
The National Milk Bank (NMB) is a nationwide organization that collects donated human milk, ensures milk safety and quality and makes it available for infants in need. We strive to make quality human breast milk available to all premature and critically-ill babies. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for all qualified donors across the United States to donated their milk by making the donor process convenient and confidential.
I only find the word Prolacta in a memo on the bottom of this site that mentions them as a "processing partner." A search of the site for either Prolacta or HMF yields no results. Some of the others have a mention here or there. For example, I see Prolacta is mentioned as a "sponsor" on Milkbanking.net, but a reader would not be able to deduce from reading the information given on this site or others that all the milk collected at the facilities is to be used in the development and manufacture of Prolacta products.
As for the Haiti milk mix-up post above, my main point in this post is not to suggest that Prolacta made off with all the milk donated for Haiti. This one is really not about Prolacta (though it's not out of the question they or their partners saw an opportunity there). Rather, it's about how other milk collection organizations (not related to Prolacta) seem to have a similiar attitude about whether or not it's impotant to have a clear, disclosed plan for where milk is going before soliciting it - so long as the milk will be used for "good." I believe in using breast milk for all kinds of good (including the development of HMF and other biotherapeutics), but I also believe a woman who donates her milk deserves more information.
Like you, I would really like to know how much milk has been collected in the US since that Haiti milk donor press release and where it went. Actually, I'd really like to know how much milk is collected every month in the US and where it goes. If you ever find any of this kind of information - please let me know!
Heather