Beck I don't know that I could use the milk bank either. It's interesting that you raised the blood transfusion issue. It is something I have thought about too. I know that when the subject came up recently in our family with someone maybe having to have one, we talked about one of us donating rather than accepting blood from the blood bank. This is with most of us being regular donors so it isn't that we think we are "better" or "cleaner" than other people ... more that we wanted to be able to provide that for someone in our own family. In an emergency, obviously you would take blood without a problem because that's what it is there for. I can quite understand why people feel even more strongly on the breastmilk issue. It is such a close connection between mother and baby - you are literally providing of yourself for the baby and I don't know if I could let my baby drink someone else's breastmilk. Others may disagree with this or think its stupid but that's how it is for me.

That said, I think the idea in and of itself is an excellent one, particularly in the case of prem babies for whom formula is not really a good option.