IBMP delivers 11,000 ounces of donor breast milk to South African infants

The US-based International Breast Milk Project (IBMP), Prolacta Bioscience and Quick International Courier in a joint humanitarian effort delivered 11,000 ounces (2,375 bottles) of donor breast milk to South Africa, this week.  The shipment, sent from Monrovia, California, to be split between Durban and Cape Town, will be used to feed premature, sick and orphaned infants.

The Cape Town-based non-profit, Milk Matters, distributes donor breast milk to over 27 major hospitals in the province. Emphasizing the need for continued supply of donor breast milk, Dr. Alan Horn, a neonatologist at the Groote Shuur Hospital in Cape Town, said,  "Donating breast milk is an act that involves the least pain and the most gain, compared to any other human tissue or organ donation. It is potentially life-saving and is worth more than equipment or staff."

In the developing world, breast-feeding and breast milk feeding are key interventions to promote child health and survival. "The IBMP donor milk fills a critical gap while we continue to develop supplies of local donor milk," says Dr. Max Kroon, Pediatrician, Mowbray Maternity Hospital, Cape Town.

Amanda Nickerson, Executive Director of IBMP, explained, "We support Milk Matters in Cape Town, and iThemba Lethu in Durban because one-third of the people in several South African towns are HIV positive which makes recruiting healthy local milk donors exceedingly difficult. International Breast Milk Project is the only organization in the world to provide large provisions of donor breast milk to infants suffering from HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, poverty and disease in Africa."  

SOURCE International Breast Milk Project