Ci am forty-four places in Italy where something happens difficult to explain with the language of medicine alone, even if medicine has something to do with it. They are called BLUD and they guard something extremely precious: milk. It’s about the Donated human milk banksbreast milk collected from women who produce more than necessary, processed according to rigorous protocols, and then distributed to newborns who cannot receive it from their mothers. A practice that we perhaps hear too little about and to which today, May 19th, is dedicated World Human Milk Donation Daythe day in which this precious practice is told again.
Donated human milk banks, the value of a shared gesture
Most babies receive donated breast milk she was born too earlya condition that prevents their organs from already knowing how to do their job. Human milk, in these cases, it is therefore not just any food for them: it is therapy. It reduces the risk of very serious pathologies, protects against infections, accompanies neurological development in ways that studies continue to confirm even years after birth. It is precisely for this reason that this year theAIBLUD, the Italian Association of Donated Human Milk Banks which coordinates the Italian banks and the SINthe Italian Society of Neonatologyhave chosen to describe this practice in all its complexity. Not only as a medical fact, but as a human fact.
What happens when you donate
Becoming a donor is not complicated: women undergo screeningafter that their milk is traced and pasteurized before arriving at your destination. Donating is a gesture that can help those who produce too much milk to avoid traffic jams and mastitis, but what, however, the donors describe most is something else. It’s knowing that something produced by your own body, in an already dense and tiring moment like post-partum, is nourishing a child hospitalized in intensive care: it’s an experience that many describe as unexpectedly powerful.
In Italy there are 44 facilities that collect and distribute donated breast milk. For premature babies it is not a food: it is a cure. (Getty Images)
Donating breast milk: why do it
«Donating breast milk is a simple but extraordinarily effective gesture, capable of generating benefits at multiple levels: biological, psychological and social» explained Dr. Guido Moro, president of AIBLUD. «Supporting and promoting this practice means invest in the health of the most vulnerable newbornsenhance the active role of mothers and strengthen a solidarity network that represents one of the most concrete examples of human and shared medicine.”
What happens when you receive it
For a mother who is unable to breastfeed immediately, which is very common after a premature birthwhich in itself is already a shock to the body, the inability to feed your child directly can become an enormous burden. Donated milk, therefore, is a precious resource which, although it does not resolve pain, it reduces the feeling of exclusion from something fundamental. It often works as a bridge: a temporary support while your lactation gets underway.
Donated human milk banks, Italy among the top countries
With forty-four active structures, Italy is among the top three European countries for the diffusion of milk banks. But the geographic distribution is still uneven, and not all newborns have the same access. In 2024 the European Parliament equated donated human milk to the category of blood and tissue and by August 2027 all banks will have to adapt to the new European regulation. A unique and very important opportunity that professionals are hoping for it is also an opportunity to build more coordinated networks between existing structuresso that the milk can move where it is really needed, and that the place of birth ceases to make a difference.
