27.06.2024Expert guidance on human milk banking

A new package of best practice resources developed and advocated by the world’s top experts on the donation and use of human milk is now freely available, in response to calls for standardized and evidence-based global guidance. 

The package emerged from the “International Expert Consultation on the Donation and Use of Human Milk” organized by the Institute of Biomedical Ethics (IBME) and co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), at the University of Zurich, July 8-9, 2019. (more)

The 28 expert participants (shown in the photo above) were aligned on the urgent, unmet need for evidence-based guidance on implementing, operation and regulating human milk banks. Read their full report here.

Together these new resources bring us a welcome step forward in aligning global practices on the safe creation and sustainability of human milk banks, says Nikola Biller-Andorno, Prof. Dr. med. Dr. phil., Director, IBME. 

Just published as a Special Issue in Maternal & Child Nutrition, the package includes five publications covering the critical aspects of human milk banking. There is an editorial, an article summarizing the expert consultation meeting and three articles providing extensive detail and new evidence-based guidance. 

Access each publication in the Special Issue (Expert overview of critical focus areas towards the development of global human milk bank standards) from the links below:

Editorial: ‘Nonprofit human milk banking: On a challenging path to global equity’

Meeting report summary: ‘International expert meeting on the donation and use of human milk: Brief report’

Article: ‘Review of current best practices for human milk banking’ 

Article: ‘The global status of human milk banking’ 

Article: ‘A comparative review of human milk banking and national tissue banking programs’