Source: Toronto Star

Six years after it was first proposed for Ontario, a breast milk bank that could have saved dozens of vulnerable babies is still months away from completion.

Vancouver has had a facility for more than three decades, and Calgary opened one in April after only 16 months of planning.

Pediatric doctors have been pushing for a network of breast-milk banks across the country, arguing that mothers’ milk, rather than infant formula, is vital to the survival of the most vulnerable, premature babies. So convinced of its benefits, one Toronto hospital has been purchasing breast milk from an Ohio bank since 2005.

Why Ontario is lagging is unclear, especially after the provincial government committed $1.2 million in operating funds one year ago. Critics have raised questions about whether the delay is due to political red tape, the influence of infant formula companies or the many levels of hospital administration that must be overcome to open a new facility.

“It’s been on again, off again, on again, off again,” said Edith Kernerman, president of the Ontario Lactation Consultants Association. She recalls hearing those involved in the project make an announcement at a national breastfeeding conference that the milk bank would be opening imminently. That was more than three years ago.

“What has been stopping them? It’s baffling. I just don’t see how they can’t have gone ahead so far. Especially since we know (premature) newborns are heavily compromised — their lives are compromised — when they are not given breast milk.”

In interviews, doctors and other healthcare workers working to open the breast-milk bank say it was important to conduct research to clearly show the health benefits to babies and the cost benefit to running the facility. The goal, they said, is for Ontario to have the safest, most sophisticated breast-milk bank in the world.

“You don’t want to be spending a lot of money that is not worth anything,” said Dr. Shoo Lee, chief of pediatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital and at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. “We had to test to make sure it was something beneficial.”

Recent research conducted by Lee and colleagues has shown donated breast milk will save the lives of 15 babies each year in Ontario by preventing a dangerous bowel condition called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which most often affects babies born prematurely and those with very low birth weights.

“It’s the single largest killer of babies in the neonatal intensive care units today,” said Lee, who is also chief of neonatology at the Hospital for Sick Children.

In Ontario, about 1,500 infants will have NEC, which can lead to gangrene and bowel perforations. Infants who survive can end up having large portions of their bowel removed or need colostomies.

Scientists do not yet know precisely why some premature infants are susceptible to NEC. Lee said the bowels of premature babies are not able to tolerate cow’s milk — one of the primary ingredients in infant formula. For a variety of reasons, some new mothers are unable to provide breast milk for their babies.

Read More: