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Breastmilk Bank Threatened with Closure"I've been breastfeeding my daughter for 7+ months and have just gone back to work in the past month. I have a lot of milk in my freezer that my daughter will probably never use. She prefers to nurse before work, on my lunch hour and after work, taking just over half of the milk I pump daily. I haven't been able to find out how to contact Vancouver's milk bank. Do you have contact information?" --e-mail received by INFACT Canada, April 2000 "I am an HIV positive mother and I have been feeding my daughter donor breast milk that has been given to me free of charge by various women in the … area. She is almost 5 weeks old now and has never been fed formula. I am moving to … in May and am looking for contacts or resources where I may connect with women who are willing to spare some of their milk. If you have any suggestions please e-mail me." --e-mail received by INFACT Canada, April 2000 Since time immemorial women have been sharing their breastmilk, and the practice of "wet nursing" has been a common practice in many cultures. With the loss of normal breastfeeding also came the loss of this familiar social practice; yet not entirely lost during this century. The famous Dionne quintuplets of the 1930s owe their survival to breastmilk that poured in from across Ontario and also the northern bordering US states. Suspicion of breastmilk, as irrational as that might be, was given a boost when the Nutrition Committee of the Canadian Pediatric Society made its unfounded recommendation to discontinue breast milk banks in Canada. The resulting public outcry from those who valued this important resource for mothers and babies, has kept Canada's only human milk bank, BC Children's Hospital, open to date. Closure again threatens this valuable life-giving resource. Now again the BC Children's Hospital is considering the closure of its milk bank. A communication from the hospital's spokesperson, Ms. Elizabeth Riley, noting the reasons for the closure such as inadequate demand, lack of education on the part of physicians, made the comment: "While we strongly support breastfeeding, there is extensive clinical research documenting that formula fed newborns are not disadvantaged in their development and growth in comparison to breastfed babies." Claiming equivalence for babies, formula fed and breastfed, is a surprising statement from a children's heath facility. One wonders why BC Children's is ignoring the enormous amount of science-based data. Could it be the influence of research dollars from the formula industry? Ignoring the unique requirements of a wide range of high need infants when mothers are unable to provide their own breastmilk, will certainly cost the health care system millions more in long term costs, while children and their parents suffer the consequences. Please also see the INFACT Canada Summer 1995 cover story, Donor Human Milk Essential Resource For High Need Infants. 
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