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Milk of human kindness
Milk banks have a long tradition of helping premature or ill babies. Claire Roberts takes a look at how another woman's milk can save a life
It all started with the birth of the St Neot's quadruplets, born seven weeks early, at their home in Cambridgeshire. The babies were very small, prompting a forward-thinking woman, Miss Edith Dare, matron at the Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London, to organise the milk of other new mums in her maternity unit to be collected and flown twice daily to the tiny village where the quads lived. Their mother, elated but exhausted, could supplement her own breast milk and ensure each of her tiny babies received adequate nutrition and so the best start in life.
That the quads survived is something of a success story even in our enlightened times; that this took place back in 1935 is even more extraordinary. Miss Dare's compassion inspired Great Ormond Street physician, Dr Donald Peterson, to write to her in person, suggesting there should be a centre at Queen Charlotte's for 'supplying breast milk to premature babies on a large scale.' And so the first human milk bureau, as it was known for many years, was officially opened on March 1st 1939.
Milk banks today
There are now 10 milk banks supplying needy infants UK-wide (see www.ukamb.org for a full list), and plans for expansion are afoot. 'Access to milk banks for all babies who could benefit is under discussion,' says Gillian Weaver, milk bank manager at the Queen Charlotte and Chelsea Hospital. 'Banks that currently exist are supplying more hospitals as demand for donor milk increases. In 2002 this hospital alone supplied 250 premature babies with donated milk.'
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