Blood transfusions are there to save lives, and I would 'probably' consent if faced with that decision, however, BM is not the only way to save a babies life if the mother cannot BF, so personally no I wouldn't..
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Blood transfusions are there to save lives, and I would 'probably' consent if faced with that decision, however, BM is not the only way to save a babies life if the mother cannot BF, so personally no I wouldn't..
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:yeahthat: i don't know why but the thought of someone else's BM just doesn't sit right with me. And i would only accept someone elses blood if it was in a life or death situation otherwise i would refuse.
I understand that all BM donated would be screened but what if they make mistakes or become slack and something is passed on our babies, i'm not saying that would happen but i atleast know formula is fine and that it doesn't stop a child from being smarter than those who are BF.
As an example we were out at dinner last night and there was another young couple with their 5 month old girl, they started chatting to us, they thought Miss K was a newborn as shes so little. Anyways the mother asked me questions, she asked if i BF or FF and i said FF to which she said fair enough. Then her little girl was being a bit cranky because she kept taking her dummy out and then the mother said in a bragging kind of tone that her bub had just learnt to take her dummy out and put it back in and thats when DP said that Miss K has been able to do that for a few weeks now.
I'm not saying my bub is the smartest in the world but she learnt something well before this other bub and the difference is mine is FF where the other is BF. I know BM has it benefits over FF but formula really is not that bad.
And im not taking a stab at anyone i know this is a friendly conversation so if my post comes across as snooty its not my intention
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So you don't drink cows milk? It's someone else's breast milk, just the "someone else" eats grass and says moo.
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hmmm, sorry but I found that abit aggressive. Breastmilk is a body fluid and the drinking of other peoples body fluid such as breastmilk, urine etc does not sit comfortably with some people.
I don't go out to my backyard, kneel beneath a cow and suck on it's teat...I do, however, drink cows milk that has been pasturized to remove as many microbials as possible. When they can find an appropriate way of removing contaminates out of breastmilk (which pasturizing is not suitable because it is suggested the heating of breastmilk removes the nutrients anyway) I will consider using donated BM for my DD.
Its easy to judge people, its harder to actually try to understand why people feel the way they do....
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Oh, I forgot to say too that my support also extends to women being able to access breastmilk from their 'village' or support network because I think it is wonderful that women have been able to rely on it to get them through rough patches of BFing etc.
And thanks Kate
Sorry, are you suggesting that Breastmilk and Urine are in the same category? Because I find THAT offensive. I don't even know where to begin to explain why.
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They are body fluids which is what I was implying...why is that offensive?
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
Breastmilk is live, like blood. It's not a waste product like urine or poo.
I never thought I'd think about them in the same thread.
Urine is waste material that the body is disposing of. BM is provided by the body to nurture a child. I wouldn't compare urine with cow's milk either, we don't consume urine. BM is made for consumption, urine is waste. I have a problem consuming waste.
ETA: I also wouldn't share my urine with someone or expect them to feed me or my child with urine. The mind boggles at the thought.
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I understand that all BM donated would be screened but what if they make mistakes or become slack and something is passed on our babies, i'm not saying that would happen but i atleast know formula is fine and that it doesn't stop a child from being smarter than those who are BF.
As an example we were out at dinner last night and there was another young couple with their 5 month old girl, they started chatting to us, they thought Miss K was a newborn as shes so little. Anyways the mother asked me questions, she asked if i BF or FF and i said FF to which she said fair enough. Then her little girl was being a bit cranky because she kept taking her dummy out and then the mother said in a bragging kind of tone that her bub had just learnt to take her dummy out and put it back in and thats when DP said that Miss K has been able to do that for a few weeks now.
I'm not saying my bub is the smartest in the world but she learnt something well before this other bub and the difference is mine is FF where the other is BF. I know BM has it benefits over FF but formula really is not that bad.
And im not taking a stab at anyone i know this is a friendly conversation so if my post comes across as snooty its not my intention
Donated breastmilk can be screened and is open to the possibility of contamination but so is formula. Formula is man made in a factory and therefore also has risks of being contaminated if someone makes an error.
Dedicated_mummy, I get what you're saying. I would use donor milk. In fact, I used my sisters milk when I was having supply troubles with DS.
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
I think there are two main problems
1- supply. It can be hard to get a reasonable amount - you'd need to be producing a fair bit to commercialise it.
2 - ethical issues involvd with selling human tissues (or whatever)
On top of that of course is the fact that most people would rather drink something from an animal or tin than from another human.
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KM- like Eluned said, formula being man made has many possible contaminations, there was recently formula pulled from shelves due to mould spores being present in tins, also PLASTIC\, yes, you read that right, MELAMINE in the actual formula!!! if you google it, you will probably find, many, many, many incidences of contamination in formula over the last 30 years.
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Thank you for that information. But i won't google it. I don't want to upset myself when there is nothing i can do to change the way i feed my baby.
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Actually, we don't know that formula is fine. The recent incident in China highlighted just how 'not fine' it is, with babies being given formula laced with melamine that had fatal consequences. We also don't know what's in formula, they don't label for GM ingredients if it's less than a certain %age, for example. The idea that a multi-national company that is there to make a profit has your child's best interests at heart is fundamentally flawed IMO.
There are so many issues with providing breastmilk for sale that I think a simpler solution would be to increase bfing amongst the community in general. And encouraging (not disparaging) those mothers within a community who share their bm. Milk banks for sick and prem babies are wonderful, but not really viable for the broader population.
Last edited by Jennifer13; November 2nd, 2010 at 02:13 PM.
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I understand and appreciate your comment but i was brought up on formula as a child and so were my siblings and we are 100% healthy, and any health issues we may have are genetic. Formula didnt make my sister epileptic or cause my pcos or cause our poor vision. What happened in China is yes a very devastating incident but thats not to say that all formula is bad.
And i think these comments are wasted on me because i can't exactly change my mind my bub has been FF for 3.5 months now.
I will try my hardest to BF or express my next child but for now unless my child gets seriously ill from what im feeding her with then nothing will change my opinion on it.
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HUn, noone is saying formula feeding is a bad thing. I think Jen is just trying to point out that there are risks to feeding a baby anything other than it's own mothers breast milk. Even then I believe there can be risks of ifection with certain diseases.
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Hun, I'm not trying to change your mind. Your choice is yours and I absolutely uphold the rights of a parent to choose how they feed their child. I'm only pointing out for the record that you can't rely on a company to act in your child's best interests. That's why it's so important to hold them to account, as consumers and through our government, to make sure our children are safe.
Chances are, nothing will go wrong with feeding formula your child. But as a society, making bm available to more babies (preferably from their own mothers) would have both short and long term benefits.
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