Study: Most Donor Breast Milk Is Contaminated

A study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that unregulated donor milk might not be as safe as moms hope it is. The study was led by Sarah Keim, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Ohio State and a researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. 

Are you tempted to accept breast milk from a mom committed to breastfeeding, just like you? My friend was. She simply didn't produce breast milk and turned to Craigslist to make sure her baby could at least benefit from that infamous third-best option. She met the woman who donated at a Walmart parking lot, and said:

But the woman who wanted to donate her breast milk looked normal. A toddler was sitting in a car seat in her car, and my friend decided to take the milk. The woman assured her it had been properly stored in her freezer, and my friend was happy to give the "liquid gold" to her baby. 

Keim and her team collected 101 samples of breast milk, Procured in the same way. They compared these milk samples to unpasteurized milk from breast milk banks, and found that most of the milk-share milk, a total of 74 percent, was contaminated with Gram-negative bacteria or had colony-forming units. 

Sixty-four percent had staph. Thirty-six percent had strep, and three quarters had other bacteria. Three samples even contained salmonella. While the unpasteurized milk bank samples weren't free of bacteria either, they were a lot cleaner and were still waiting to go through the pasteurization process. 

Do you think you are doing your child a favor by obtaining human milk from a stranger through a milk-share website? Sarah Keim doesn't: "We looked at everything a buyer could know herself — temperature, the condition of the containers, how long it took to ship, what sellers were saying in their ads — and only the time in transit had any effect on contamination."

In other words, even milk from nice ladies like the one my friend accepted milk from could be ridden with bacteria.

Do you think formula is the worst thing you could give to your baby? Think again. Buy donor milk from a reputable breast milk bank if it's available and you can afford it. Otherwise, give formula — guilt-free, knowing that it it might make your baby's poop more smelly, and it could even give her eczema, but at least she won't be infected with staph, strep, or salmonella.