I am glad you replied Barb - I too am concerned at the trust given to ABM and the distrust given to EBM. Above I copied and pasted from a website from North America.
They have happily banked their breastmilk with much success it would seem. It is done by donation - as they have even stricter medical ethics there than here...

What has troubled me over night is the feelings that some posters have that it's hard to get someone to donate you their milk. I gently suggest that be turned into a can do rather than cannot statement. It is possible - and you don't need endless lactating women. Just 1 or 2. It can be done.

In my situation I have lactated beautifully - eventually! I had a rather hideous birth with my first with a failed epidural and a resultant epidural headache. ABM was never going to be an option for me - I was super determined to feed my baby with my breasts. I was very educated about the benefits. I literally couldn't sit up after she was born due to the headache that remained undiagnosed until a week post birth. I used nipple shields so that she could attatch lying down. It was horrendous. It truly was. My supply was low as a side effect of the shields. I did it really really really hard for about 3 months. I expressed after every feed for 3 months just to get my supply up to speed. She fed continually as my supply was low. I was in a homebirth community ad was offered milk but I wanted to get it right. Anyway I idid. Eventually but it was a hard and painful journey. I had affirmations on every available wall - I constantly muttered to myself: "my breasts are full of life giving milk"!
My point being that it was really hard and I know how difficult breastfeeding can be. I don't want anyone thinking that it was all a walk in the park - I want to establish I truly get how hard it can be. However, I also know how beneficial it is to babies and how important it is for babies to have a choice too!

I remember the little trisomy 21 babe we expressed for - his mother was heartbroken that she couldn't produce enough milk for her son. She also knew that for her ABM was a poor cousin that couldn't give her sick little fella the very best chances. It was a slap in the face that she couldn't supply enough milk for her child - I remember well her torment. However she was able to choose the next best thing. I only wish that for every baby.

We have to stop the belief that artificial is best and of high quality just because Mr Nestle says it is! He is selling his can! Dach pointed out that we don't know if the milk is manufactured on equipment that produces nuts etc. We also don't know the pesticide, sLE, herbicide content. Yet we believe it's okay as it comes in a sealed tin!

Thank the Universe for ABM as it can help - but it is used with much more frequency than is good for our little people. This is NOT blame placed at mothers. It is damn hard being a mother in our society. We are not treated as the Goddesses that we truly are. We are not surrounded by sisters, mothers and aunts so that we can establish our breastfeeding. We are often told by our "sisters" - I was up and walking around 10 minutes post birth". I never think I am in the midst of a wondorous thing when I hear that - for it makes me sad. Because we are to rest - to snuggle, to be alone in the dark with the arms of our loving man to support us, with strokes from our sisters. We need quiet falling in love time. Just as we don't make love to our men in a bright room with noise and visitors and food trolleys - nor should we "make love" to our babes in such an environment.

Wehen we put our babes to our breast - I dont know about you but I feel love, gratitude, joy, thankfulness... Every time.

If milk banks can have a living food available to babies that need it - they have that rsonance of love in the milk! It's alive. (has anyone read the "messages in water") I know that is out there for some but I truly believe that.

We have got choices. There are not many women who woldn't express for another woman's child if she could. I really believe that. Because us mothers are amazing - we will do all we can. I gently urge us as a community of AMAZING women to step outside of our circle and see HOW WE CAN rather than how we can't. Even on here - you know we have prems born here in BB land - maybe we can start by expressing for them - we need to believe in Utopia! Because without a belief that there can be change it aint gonna happen!

As with many discussions on BB this has come back to the Village - it is up to us to build a village, with like minded women and men - for whom 15 minutes expressing 4-5 times a day is a gift given with love... From a mother who has accepted anothers milk (granted I didn't need it as just having the pressure off me to produce - allowed my milk to come in)

I still would like Bath to enlarge on what she meant - but for me trusting in the milk our bodies make is a far safer bet than on a can. Not withstanding that sometimes it is absolutely needed that can - just putting out there that why do we trust a can before the milk our female bodies manufacture for ours (or others!) babies.

I would love to see a day that AMB was "canned" as our milk banks were full! I see in the US the EBM is by prescription and couriers deliver it frozen to homes and hospitals. Wouldn't it be wild if Mr Nestle had to take up a new venture - imagine if every lactating woman donated 1 feed per day to the bank? I think it would be amazing!

We all make our decisions based on what's the best for us at the time - this isn't about that - it's about looking to the future and making the milk that nurtures our societies children the best possible when a mother cannot produce it for her self...