Healthcare Resources

COMMUNITY MILK SHARING WEBINAR

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Community Milk Sharing: What You Need to Know About Giving and Receiving Liquid Gold is moderated by Brandi Gates-Burgess of Breast Friends Lactation Support Services, the event will provide historical information on the tradition of community milk sharing, wet nursing, and Black history and breastfeeding.

A lactation consultant at Highland Hospital, Gates-Burgess serves on the Community Advisory Board of the UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative, and co-chairs The Breastfeeding Cultural Outreach Taskforce (BCOT). She also has personal experience with community milk sharing.

This webinar will feature a panel of milk donors and grateful milk recipients sharing their personal experiences.

View webinar recording

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Milk sharing is a tradition as old as time, and the infant formula shortage has increased interest among families desiring food security.

Human milk banks provide pasteurized donor human milk for the most vulnerable infants but other families seek milk from lactating people in their communities: relatives, friends, acquaintances and strangers willing to share their surplus milk.

Though the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises against feeding human milk acquired directly from individuals or through the internet, the World Health Organization (WHO) doesn’t discriminate between milk sharing and using pasteurized donor human milk when mother’s own milk is not available and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) has a position statement on the topic, recognizing informal milk sharing as an increasingly common practice with potential health benefits for the term healthy infant.

This discrepancy in advice can put health care providers in a tricky position when patients or clients have questions about community milk sharing.

Objectives for this webinar:

  1. Discuss the current evidence for community milk-sharing and what it means
  2. Apply best practices for shared decision-making
  3. Practice informing families about guidelines for medical screening of potential milk donors
  4. Practice informing families about safe handling and storage of human milk

View webinar recording

For continuing education units, complete and submit an evaluation form to receive a downloadable certificate of attendance.

View Dr. Palmquist presentation slides

View Dr. Sriraman presentation slides

Additional resources

COVID-19 LEARN SERIES WEBINARS

Thanks to a generous grant from the California Health Care Foundation and support from the Inland Empire Breastfeeding Coalition, we were able to host a series of eight webinars focused on equipping providers to support the initiation and success of breastfeeding for families in the era of COVID-19.

COVID-19 RECOMMENDATIONS AND GUIDELINES REFERENCE LIST

California Department of Public Health

American Academy of Pediatrics

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

World Health Organization and UNICEF Global Guidance

COVID-19 PARENT RESOURCES PAGE

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