Australian Red Cross Lifeblood is urgently calling on breastfeeding mothers to donate their excess milk to help save the lives of premature babies in neonatal intensive care units.
High rates of cold and flu have almost wiped out Lifeblood’s regular donors, leaving only seven mothers booked in to donate breast milk used to protect the tiniest and sickest babies from deadly infections.
Sarah Oliver’s daughter Matilda relied on donor breast milk for her first two weeks of life. Credit: Kate Geraghty
“We need three times that to meet the demand,” Lifeblood milk manager Chris Sulfaro said.
“Everybody in a donor household has to be fit, well and healthy [for a mother to donate milk], so this winter has really affected the volume of milk we’ve been able to collect.”
Donations to Lifeblood’s milk banks are given to babies born before 32 weeks or weighing under 1500 grams, or babies who have serious problems, such as with their gut or heart.
These babies are susceptible to a life-threatening condition called necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), which damages their intestines. NEC affects 2 to 5 per cent of premature infants, with mortality rates from 10 to 50 per cent.
Human milk coats their gut, protecting them against the condition. A Lifeblood analysis found that donated breast milk reduced the risk of developing NEC by a third in extremely preterm babies.
Sarah Oliver’s baby Matilda relied on donated breast milk for her first two weeks of life – she was born at 33 weeks at a tiny 1.3 kilograms. Oliver was recovering from a caesarean and could express only a few drops of colostrum.
“The milk was a godsend,” Oliver said. “It was an incredibly stressful time with Matilda in an incubator and hooked up to several machines, but I didn’t have to worry about whether I had enough milk to feed her. I could give my body time to catch up and let my milk come in.”
Matilda developed low-grade NEC on day 12. Oliver credits donated milk with preventing a more serious bout and has since donated almost 4 litres of her own milk.
“It’s an amazing service … We were so lucky to receive it,” Oliver said on Sunday as Matilda, now four months old, woke from her nap for a feed.
“Hopefully, the milk I gave will help babies in the same way.”
The service needs an estimated 120 litres of breast milk weekly for about 1500 babies in 35 neonatal ICUs in NSW, South Australia, Queensland, WA, ACT and Tasmania each year. That means between 20 and 40 donors a week.
Demand for donated breast milk has risen from 4000 litres to 5000 litres over the past two years.
The service has distributed 55,000 bottles of milk in the past year from about 370 donors in Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane.
Dr Kavita T. Krishnan worked in a neonatal ICU and witnessed all manner of medical complications before her son became a patient in one. Sashi was born at 27 weeks, weighing 1.3 kilograms, and received donor breastmilk for the first six hours.
“I was terrified of NEC. He was so seriously susceptible,” she said. “Getting that protection at that critical time was a phenomenal thing for him, and it supported my own breastfeeding journey.”
She is now a perinatal GP and an internationally certified lactation consultant working to establish breastfeeding medicine as a specialty.
Donating breastmilk. How is it done?
- Mothers who live in Brisbane, Sydney and Adelaide can donate breast milk if they produce more than their own babies need (at least three litres left in their freezer).
- Potential donors are asked questions about their medical history, lifestyle choices, and health including any current illnesses and medications. They also undergo blood tests to screen for infectious diseases.
- Lifeblood’s milk donor coordinators collect the expressed milk and deliver it to milk banks in Sydney and Brisbane.
- The milk is pasteurised: heated to 62.5 degrees Celsius for 30 continuous minutes to destroy potentially harmful bacteria and viruses, then rapidly cooled to 5 degrees or under in 50 minutes.
- It is tested one more time, then frozen below minus 18 degrees Celsius and delivered directly to the NICUs.
Breast milk also protects against other serious diseases and infections, has all the nutrients babies need for their growth and development and is easier than formula for immature guts to digest.
Dr Krishnan donated almost 32 litres of breastmilk, which was sent to hospitals in Townsville, Westmead, Penrith and Sydney.
“Mothers who have a baby in NICU are trapped in limbo. Knowing that milk is coming from another mother is so comforting,” she said.
Lifeblood closely monitors the program to track the long-term impacts of donated milk on the health of the babies and the breastfeeding rates of their mothers.
The service also supplies milk to two clinical trials investigating the benefits of donated breast milk for mid- to late-term babies and full-term babies.
Potential donors can take an eligibility quiz on Lifeblood’s website.
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