Question

Milk banks pasteurize the breast milk and sell it. Yet milk banks are running out of milk. Why? What solution would you propose?

How would you solve problem of contamination risk in the breast milk market?

Answer 1

Pasteurize breast milk is especially important for premature or sick babies who are more likely to develop intestinal infections if they are given formula instead of breast milk. Breast milk is donated to babies whose mothers are unable to breast-feed their babies due to certain reasons like delay of their own milk supply, insufficient supply of milk for their babies or due to some medical conditions they are unable to supply milk to their own babies.

Looking at the huge demands for breast milk, many companies established milk banks to procure milk from donors, pasteurize and then supply the babies who need it badly on the basis of a medical prescription. There are also milk banks who are sometimes running out of milk due to many reasons: In urban areas mothers are more aware of milk banks, they come forward in large numbers to donate milk to milk banks, but still sometimes when they come across medical professionals who don't support breastfeeding may create obstacles for the donation of milk. Excessive marketing from formula manufacturers create barriers to the donation and receipt of milk. On the grounds of cultural and religious complexities, many women are reluctant to donate milk. Surveys say 90% of women do not aware of milk banks or donors' milk, they don't know it could be a method to save their premature and sick child's life. Lastly, in most of the rural parts of many countries, women are unknown of this system of milk bank. All these lead to milk deficiencies in milk banks.

In my opinion, the best solution is creating awareness among the women about the benefits of breast milk for a newborn and they must understand the situations of a mother who are unable to breast-feed their premature and sick child. Mother's milk is the right of a child, it should not be stopped in any way. Most people are making it a political issue, they often biased women. To handle this, all women should be properly educated about the benefits and results of donation of breast milk to a needy child. They should go above all the social, political and religious barriers to save a child's life.   

The problem of contamination risk in the breast milk market can be solved by thorough testing of collected milk. Generally, all milk banks follow the following steps to make the donors' milk bacteria free.

Frozen donor milk is melted, nutritionally analyzed, cultured,pooled and poured into bottles, then pasteurized at 62.5 C in a shaking water bath or automatic pasteurizer. Pasteurized milk is quickly cooled, then frozen at -20'C. There are also some independent laboratories who conducts microbiological cultures from individual donors' deposits prior to pasteurization and pooling, and from each batch of milk after pasteurization. This process verifies that there are no heat-resistant pathogens before pasteurization and the growth of bacteria after the heating process is zero.

If all the milk banks are following the above steps genuinely, then there will be no risk of contamination in the breast milk market.