If you had no breastmilk, would you use a breastmilk bank?

[beastie]

im not sure but i think i tend to no, because the mothermilk adapt to your baby.
there are other 'ingredients' when it becomes older and from a bank it could get milk from a woman which 'beastfeed' since a year. i think there will be a lot of belly aches for my poor little baby

[MantaRay]

I have already posted to say "yes" I would use it. But I wanted to add something that might be of interest to some of you.

My friend gave birth to a very, very premmie baby last year (24 wks). Against all odds he has survived and is doing well. However, for the first few months any little infection or germ would have killed him. Even now, 10 months after birth, he has only just been allowed to meet other kids as prior to this the risk of him catching something was too high as it could have made him seriously ill or even killed him. In this instance, the immunity provided by breast milk is very important. There is no way to know for sure whether this little boy's life was saved because of the breastmilk, but it well might have been. For me, it's not a chance I would be willing to take. For me, it's like the decision to allow my child a blood transfusion. If there is even a chance that it will save his life and the benefits outweigh the risk, (which I believe they do in this instance), I wouldn't hesitate.

This would probably be an easier decision for me than many others though, as I am not uncomfortable with the thought of sharing breastmilk.