Group Sets Milk Standards

Women who smoke, use illegal drugs or have traveled to certain countries such as Cameroon and Niger (where there is a form of HIV that is hard to detect) are not eligible to donate their milk to banks accredited by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA).

Milk banks, like organ and blood banks, must rely on donors' honesty in answering the qualifying questions. Donors are usually screened once, rather than before each donation, according to Bonnie Moore, a registered nurse at the Mothers' Milk Bank in Raleigh, N.C. Potential donors affirm that they do not regularly consume large amounts of alcohol. Moore advises donors that if they do have a binge-drinking night, they must "pump and dump," pumping the milk out with a breast pump and throwing it away.

The nonprofit HMBANA banks require mothers who receive the milk to have a prescription from their doctors.

There are many reasons a mother may not be able to nurse: some medical; some resulting from low production if, for example, she gave birth to a premature baby; some stemming from social pressures such as the need to return to a job where pumping is not possible. Commonly, the reason is that the baby was adopted, so the adoptive mother never lactated. In communities where breast-feeding is unusual, some mothers still prefer to give their babies human milk.