Maintaining human milk bank services throughout the Covid‐19 pandemic
A global response
Bibliographic Data
If maternal milk is unavailable, the World Health Organization recommends that the first alternative should be pasteurised donor human milk (DHM). Human milk banks (HMBs) screen and recruit milk donors, and DHM principally feeds very low birth weight babies, reducing the risk of complications and supporting maternal breastfeeding where used alongside optimal lactation support. The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a range of challenges to HMBs worldwide. This study aimed to understand the impacts of the pandemic on HMB services and develop initial guidance regarding risk limitation. A Virtual Collaborative Network (VCN) comprising over 80 HMB leaders from 36 countries was formed in March 2020 and included academics and nongovernmental organisations. Individual milk banks, national networks and regional associations submitted data regarding the number of HMBs, volume of DHM produced and number of recipients in each global region. Estimates were calculated in the context of missing or incomplete data. Through open-ended questioning, the experiences of milk banks from each country in the first 2 months of the pandemic were collected and major themes identified. According to data collected from 446 individual HMBs, more than 800,000 infants receive DHM worldwide each year. Seven pandemic-related specific vulnerabilities to service provision were identified, including sufficient donors, prescreening disruption, DHM availability, logistics, communication, safe handling and contingency planning, which were highly context-dependent. The VCN now plans a formal consensus approach to the optimal response of HMBs to new pathogens using crowdsourced data, enabling the benchmarking of future strategies to support DHM access and neonatal health in future emergencies
Benchmarking · Breast feeding · Breastfeeding · Business · Computer security · Context (archaeology · Contingency plan · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Environmental health · Geography · Pandemic · Breastfeeding Practices and Influences · COVID-19 Impact on Reproduction · Infant Nutrition and Health · Medicine · Marketing · Pediatrics
Donor Breast Milk Banking
Understanding the current and future usage of donor human milk in hospitals
The legislative framework of donor human milk and human milk banking in Europe
The impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on North American milk banks
The global status of human milk banking
Disparities in being able to donate human milk impacts upon maternal wellbeing
Comparison between the for‐profit human milk industry and nonprofit human milk banking
Views on wet nursing and expressing breastmilk for sharing and human milk bank donation among mothers in two parenting social media communities in Vietnam
Donation barriers, enablers, patterns and predictors of milk bank donors in the United States and United Kingdom
The Unsung Heroes
Maintaining human milk bank services throughout the Covid‐19 pandemic
What is known about human milk bank donors around the world
Stability of Sars-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions
Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents
Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk
Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk
National, regional, and worldwide estimates of preterm birth rates in the year 2010 with time trends since 1990 for selected countries
Breastfeeding in the 21st century
Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China
Maintaining human milk bank services throughout the Covid‐19 pandemic
Room for improvement in breast milk feeding after very preterm birth in Europe
Experiences of breastfeeding during Covid‐19
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2024 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |