Department of Health, Taipei City Government

Source:Taipei City Hospital
Good news for babies who need fresh breast milk! Yangming Branch of Taipei City Hospital has set up a mother’s milk collecting station in October. Couriers will travel to homes to collect the milk from mothers who wish to donate their breast milk and have passed the test, and then deliver the milk to the collecting station and resend it to babies in need.
Taipei City Hospital established a breast milk tank at the end of 2004, adhering to the SOP stipulated by authorities of North America. The pediatrician of Yangming Branch, Yi-ran Hu, said that humans start to feed their offspring with mother’s milk since the ancient times, as mother’s milk consists of nutrition most needed by babies and thus is irreplaceable by other types of milk. Furthermore, breast milk can enhance babies’ immune systems, makes them less vulnerable to respiratory or digestive diseases and effectively decreases chronic diseases such as allergies. Breast milk is the best food for newborns, as well as the best gift a mother can give to their child, not to mention that mothers who feed their babies with breast milk can recover better and quicker; therefore, the mother’s milk promotion is deemed very important and urgent by the authorities concerned.

Yi-ran Hu gave requirements for donors as follows:
1. Currently breastfeeding with plenty of milk.
2. Good health conditions.
3. Not taking medications or Chinese herbs.
4. No smoking.
5. The results of blood tests in types 1 and 2 of HIV, types 1 and 2 of HTLV, HCV and TPHA were all negative.
6. No TB history.
7. Mothers who have received blood donations within 12 months, drink more than 60cc liquor, are vegetarians without supplements of vitamins, or addictive to drugs shall not donate breast milk.
Donors who have the following conditions shall stop donating milk for a certain period of time:
1. Having acute contagious diseases such as mastitis or nipple infection.
2. Someone in the family who has been exposed to German measles within the past four weeks.
3. Mothers who were vaccinated with attenuated vaccines, such as oral polio vaccine, or vaccines of measles, German measles or mumps within the past four weeks.
4. Consumed alcohol within 12 hours.
5. Herpes zoster or VZV.