The Lactarium is an establishment where human milk is collected and stored for premature infants.
Sometimes born several weeks early, these babies, arriving too early, have an immature digestive system.
“Breast milk is crucial for premature newborns because of its nutritional power, its antibodies, and its positive impact on the brain and cognition,” confides Farida Dahri-Mobarek, pediatric health executive at the University Hospital of Orléans (Loiret) which finds itself in an urgent search for mothers of children under one year old who are milk donors.
Currently, science does not allow these nutritional values to be found in synthesized milk.
Furthermore, raw breast milk is specifically adapted to the needs of premature babies, contributing to the prevention of pathologies such as ulcerative necrotizing enterocolitis.
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Unfortunately, the Orléans University Hospital lactarium has recorded a worrying drop in donations in recent years: 210 mothers from Loire Valley agreed to donate their milk in 2021, compared to only 179 in 2023, a decrease of 30%.
Gone are the days when it was the Orléans University Hospital which supplied the lactariums of other departments with milk shortages.
Today, to save the lives of premature babies, the Orléans University Hospital pays 80 euros per liter of milk collected by its neighboring counterparts.
White gold is becoming increasingly rare in the Loiret.
This explains the high cost of this natural product which requires a lot of pasteurization work carried out by lactariums in order to guarantee the infant sterilized milk, rejecting bad bacteria and retaining only the essential ones, vital to the baby's nutrition.
The milk store can send a courier!
According to Farida Dahri-Mobarek, the drop in donations stems from a lack of communication: “The public is today aware of organ donation and blood donation, but we don't talk about milk donation.
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Manon, 21, is one of the mothers who chose to be a donor to help other babies: “I am lucky enough to produce a lot of milk.
If I don't give it away, it would go in the trash, it would be a waste, so I might as well help,” tells us the young mother of charming little Axel, aged 9 months and blessed with very beautiful light brown eyes.
However, this generous approach did not immediately resonate with her friends who did not understand why she gave her milk to strangers, especially since it must have taken time each time to deliver it.
To this problem, the Orléans University Hospital has found the solution: mothers from Loiret who wish to donate their milk can contact the lactarium.
Once a surplus has accumulated, the lactarium organizes home collections to ensure rapid and secure reception.
While waiting for the courier to come, simply put your milk in the freezer.
The shelf life of milk is four months frozen and six months once pasteurized.
And breast milk can be delivered up to 1 year in freeze-dried form.
But in France, only the Bordeaux lactarium (Gironde) has the necessary equipment to carry out the operation.
Once transformed into powder, the milk is regularly sent to the French Overseas Territories to save babies far from mainland France.
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“I remember a mother who, for personal reasons, chose not to breastfeed her baby,” says Farida Dahri-Mobarek.
It turns out that her baby was born several weeks early.
In danger due to her low weight, breastfeeding became the solution to save her baby.
This mother produced so much milk that she finally donated the surplus to the babies next to her, now convinced of the importance of this commodity for premature babies!
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Faced with the vital challenge facing the Orléans University Hospital, the lactarium is therefore urgently calling for support from mothers of babies under one year old.
Farida Dahri-Mobarek would like the geographical areas of Loiret where donations are very rare and yet have breastfeeding mothers to mobilize.
These are Giennois, Pithiviers and Montargois.
To be eligible for milk donation, a medical visit in person or by secure video must be carried out.
It is possible to contact the Orléans University Hospital lactarium by email at lactarium.orleans@chu-orleans.fr and by telephone at 02.38.61.33.16.