Le Figaro Bordeaux
18,000 liters of breast milk per year, or about 1500 liters per month.
This is the quantity recovered on average by the Bordeaux Marmande lactarium, soon to be installed in Pessac, in the Bordeaux conurbation.
But at this time of the end of the year, the collection is "
a little morose
", testifies the doctor Delphine Lamireau, responsible for the lactarium of the CHU of Bordeaux.
“
We need more milk and our collectors say that they currently have few donor mothers and few donations
,” laments the practitioner.
"
The end of the year is never good because moms move and think about other things, but it's a critical period for us
," says Delphine Lamireau.
The CHU is making this appeal for donations in order to collect as much breast milk as possible in the coming weeks.
The milk collected is pasteurized in the milk bank and intended for premature infants in France.
A part is also freeze-dried, in order to be sent to children overseas.
Breast milk can be kept for three months
Unlike blood donation, there is no need to travel.
17 collectors go to the homes of nursing mothers, in 26 departments in the west and south of France.
However, several conditions are necessary to be able to give breast milk: not to smoke, not to drink and not to have been transfused.
But no matter how old the baby is, moms can still give.
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No need, however, to start storing milk in the refrigerator before having received a visit from the collector.
It is the latter who will give the sterile bottles to the mother and will carry out a medical questionnaire.
Then, "
the collector leaves the bottles and sees with the mother if she comes every week, every fortnight or every month
", explains Doctor Delphine Lamireau, knowing that frozen breast milk can be kept for up to three months. .
While there is no maximum amount of breast milk donation, a minimum is set at 400 milliliters, or two full bottles.