Hi Ladies,
After my son Ethan was born I attempted to breastfeed him exclusively following the induced lactation protocol that I had developed together with Dr. Jack Newman. I quickly realized that Ethan was not an ?average? baby. In fact he was measuring in the close to the 90th percentile for height and weight. It was obvious that I needed help and fast. In the beginning, our wonderful surrogate mom pumped and shipped her breastmilk to us. She was also helping another mother and so 2/3 of Ethan?s feedings were coming from me, and 1/3 from her. At the end of 3 months and after repeated bouts of mastitis our wonderful surrogate mother decided to wean from the pump. At that point I put the word out that I needed more help and 3 wonderful women stepped up and offered breastmilk.
I decided that if the milk did not come from me or my surrogate, that I would not take any chances, even with a clean bill of health from the donors, I would do as the milk banks do?I would pasteurize the breast milk.
The pasteurizing information that Nona posted is for those of you who don't know your donor all that well and who can't obtain written documentation that the donor has been medically cleared. In my case, our wonderful surrogate mom pumped for 3 months and so pasteurization was not necessary. But as I said, I decided that if anyone donated milk that I didn't know well or didn't have written medical clearance, that I would pasteurize. And so after reading everything I could get my hands on about home pasteurization, I followed the method posted above.
Of course a home pasteurizer would make my life a whole lot easier but I was thinking of the women out there who can't afford to purchase one. Most are $300+
The one most often mentioned in the literature I found was the Safeguard Home Pasteurizer that Christina mentioned. This uses the "vat pasteurization method" and is quoted as an alternative to the "Holder Pasteurization Method".
The actual pasteurization time of 30 minutes was the least time comsuming part of the process. Emptying the bags the milk comes in was the most time consuming. The Gerber Bags are much more convenient than any of the others so far, because they have a "ziplock" type seal which is easy to work with. The other types of bags that you have to close with an elastic, take much longer to open.
As far as the donor requirements are concerned. Of course there are the obvious things....donor must be in good general health, and have a surplus of milk while breastfeeding a child under 1 year of age.....she must be free of HIV, Hepatitis A,B,C, and CMV, and non smoking, non-drinking. The occasional glass of wine does not pose a problem....it's the heavy drinkers that the milk banks want to weed out. For a more complete donor profile, you can visit this web page:
http://www.mmbaustin.org/How%20to%20become%20a%20donor.docHope this helps.
Fondly,
