It’s time to change the recommendations on COVID‐19 and human milk donations

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised important questions about breast milk donors and the treatment of donor milk from human milk banks. Human milk has a very specific composition that is essential for premature infants, as it significantly reduces the risk of serious complications related to prematurity and improves long-term neurocognitive development. That is why donor human milk from certified milk banks is the preferred alternative for providing preterm infants with nutrition if their mother s own milk is insufficient or not available. It is often difficult for mothers who have delivered very prematurely to breastfeed their high-risk infant during hospitalisation and donor human milk is essential for their infant s optimal nutrition. However, donor milk may be unavailable, or only available in limited amounts, because there is a lack of donors or because the donor milk has been discarded due to bacteriological contamination.