Breast milk is the best food for infants. The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF recommend exclusive breastfeeding from the first hour of life until at least 6 months of age. The benefits of breast milk are, in large part, related to the properties of the milk itself. The act of nursing is crucial for stimulating the production and flow of breast milk; the baby’s closeness to its mother and especially the skin-to-skin contact strengthens the baby’s immune system, and the frequent physical interaction that this entails promotes the development of mother-child emotional ties.
Breast milk is especially important for low birthweight premature infants because it lowers the risk of infection and thus, over the longer term, the risk of death. WHO recommends that low birthweight premature infants be breastfed and, if this is not possible for any extended period of time, that they be fed by a wet nurse or with donated milk from a human milk bank.
Human milk banks are run by clinics and hospitals that collect milk from a donor network. Women who wish to donate breast milk have to fulfil certain requirements and undergo an examination to make sure that they are in good health. The milk is collected, analysed, pasteurized and refrigerated so that it is ready to be administered to hospitalized infants in need of it.
Brazil’s public health policy encourages breastfeeding and, as part of that policy, the development of the world’s largest human milk banking network. The first milk bank was set up in 1943 and dispensed milk to premature babies and infants suffering from nutritional problems or certain other pathologies. Starting in 1985, human milk banks began to figure as strategic components of efforts to promote, protect and support breastfeeding and, in 1998, the Brazilian Network of Human Milk Banks was established under a public health policy whose main objective was to reduce infant mortality. In conjunction with local technological development and training, academic work to build knowledge in this area was undertaken. Brazil’s experience has been shared with other countries and, as of 2015, there were 301 human milk banks in the region, 218 of which were in Brazil.
Although human milk banks can play a very significant role in promoting a second-best option for newborns if their mothers cannot breastfeed them, it is very important for such systems to function as part of a comprehensive programme for the defence, promotion and support of breastfeeding.
Source: Global Network of Human Milk Banks, “Anuario 2015”, Serie Documentos rBLH, Río de Janeiro, 2016 [online] http://www.iberblh.org/images/serie_documentos/anuario_2015.pdf; P. Maia and others, “Human Milk Banks National Network: genesis and evolution”, Revista Brasileira de Saúde Materno Infantil, vol. 6, No. 3, Recife, Instituto de Medicina Integral Professor Fernando Figueira, 2006 [online] http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbsmi/v6n3/31899.pdf; Brazilian Network of Human Milk Banks [online] http://www.redeblh.fiocruz.br.
