UK Charity raises funds for human milk motorcycle couriers

A Chesterfield charity, "Derbyshire Blood Bikes" is raising money to offer a free off-hours service to hospitals by delivering blood, platelets, plasma, and human milk. They'd pick up expressed donor milk from nursing mothers and deliver it to the milk bank at Birmingham. They will also delivery processed milk from the bank to NICU units hosting premature babies as far away as Newcastle.

The Chesterfield Post - Hospital and Medical News from Chesterfield: The charity is hoping to further help the local hospitals by collecting baby milk from nursing mothers and deliver to the milk bank at Birmingham and then deliver at their request to maternity units for premature babies.

This service may mean delivering to Nottingham, Leicester and Sheffield as well as in relay with other blood bike volunteers in the country, but premature babies are sometimes placed where the nearest available incubator is and Derbyshire babies can be transferred as far away as Newcastle.

Kudos to USBC for their strong statement against the marketing of human milk substitutes

The US Breastfeeding Committee has issued a strong statement on the marketing of human milk substitutes and the harm the practice creates. It's on their website below, (unfortunately as a link to a PDF instead of being directly on the website in HTML - which makes it harder to share.)

Welcome to the United States Breastfeeding Committee: News
PUBLICATION: Statement on Marketing of Human
Milk Substitutes

Texas Children's wants preemies supplemented after discharge

This item on the Texas Children's Hospital blog by Dr. Steve Abrams, neonatologist, is an explanation to parents of the practice of feeding very-low-birth-weight babies in NICUs supplements to human milk, made either from human milk or cows milk. However Dr. Abrams is not just talking about in-NICU supplementing - he recommends routine supplementation post-discharge for these babies. The purpose of this blog post is to explain to parents that breastfeeding is important and they shouldn't switch entirely to infant formula assuming supplementing is a sign of breastfeeding failure.

Texas Children's recently switched to an exclusive arrangement with Prolacta for its human milk products.

Pediatric Health Blog, Texas Children's Hospital - Breastfeeding Of High-Risk Infants After Discharge From The NICU: A Nutritional Perspective | Medicine | Milestones | Miracles: December 6, 2011 Dr. Steven Abrams, Neonatologist
Breastfeeding Of High-Risk Infants After Discharge From The NICU: A Nutritional Perspective

Demand increasing for human milk, donors needed

Another news item on human milk shortage across the US - this one identifies the cause as supply not keeping up with increased demand.

WakeMed Milk Bank Needs Donations | WakeMed Voices: WakeMed Milk Bank Needs Donations
Posted December 2, 2011 � 11:59 am.Susan Evans

WakeMed Mother's Milk Bank
The value of breast milk and breastfeeding is finally being realized in the United States.� But, there are some moms who are unable to produce milk of their own for their infants.� Many times these infants are preemies who really need breast milk to grow and thrive.

The lack of donations and increased need is not isolated to North Carolina. Human milk banks across the country are experiencing similar trend as more and more hospitals and mothers learn about the benefits of breast milk.