Photograph courtesy of Franziska Egli & Kerri Frischknecht

WONDERFUL - click here to watch a video about milk banking set to a song dedicated to breastmilk donors

The United Kingdom Association for Milk Banking is a registered charity that supports human milk banking in the UK.

Our motto is Every Drop Counts and we believe that the provision of safe and screened donor breastmilk makes an important contribution to the care of the premature and sick infants who receive it.

We give practical support to the milk bank staff who co-ordinate the provision of donor breastmilk for premature babies and we share expertise and good practice with milk banks and with breastmilk donors.

We represent milk banking in the UK at a national level and our aim is the formation of a national donor breastmilk service that would supply infants throughout the UK according to priority of need rather than according to the chance location of an infant’s birth.

We also run conferences, produce newsletters and hold meetings all of which share and disseminate information about milk banking.

In these ways we have supported the existing milk banks and UKAMB has been of fundamental importance in providing the necessary support for all the newly opened milk banks in the UK.

Photograph courtesy of Franziska Egli & Kerri Frischknecht

We aim to ensure everyone working in this small field is able to benefit from our collective experience and knowledge; overseas, newly established milk banks in Africa and Australia have benefited from the work of UKAMB and many countries receive support in their endeavours to start banks of their own.

UKAMB has been largely responsible for the resurgence of interest in human milk banking in the UK. Since the year 2000, there has been a year on year increase in the number of donors and the volumes of donated breastmilk collected.

Historically our funding has come mainly from membership subscriptions and the sale of guidelines however donations and funds raised on our behalf will help to secure the future of milk banking in the UK.

Breastmilk has been banked for nearly a hundred years. Since the first milk bank opened in Vienna in 1909, the story of milk banking has crossed continents and seen fluctuations in its popularity. However in essence it remains the collection, storage, screening, processing and distribution of donated breastmilk. The uses of donor breastmilk vary but in the UK it is mostly fed to premature babies whose mothers are unable to provide enough breastmilk of their own.

•  Milk Banks supply donor breastmilk to babies in Neonatal Intensive Care Units
  
  
•  They collect breastmilk from healthy screened mothers who have a plentiful supply
  
  
•  The milk is tested and heat treated
  
  
•  The donor milk is fed to sick babies whose mothers cannot supply sufficient of their own breastmilk
  

•  Provide a forum for the exchange of information about milk banking
  
  
•  Set standards for the practice of milk banking
  
  
•  Regularly review guidelines for milk banking
  
  
•  Promote milk banking so that more milk donors come forward

•  Milk banks and interested institutions e.g. Neonatal Units and associations that promote breastfeeding
  
  
•  Individual professionals working in the field of breastfeeding
  
  
•  Non professional individuals who have an interest in milk banking
  
  
•  Companies that do not violate the WHO Code on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes