By LER Team on Wednesday, 23 March 2022
Category: General

Dangerous Donations

As the eyes of the world remain fastened on Ukraine, people passionate about the health of parents and babies are asking what they can do to help.
As a lactation support professional, there is one important action you can take: Educate those in your circle about the fact that donations of infant formula are not the way to help–and in fact, pose serious risks for infants and parents.
Donated breastmilk substitutes, including infant formula, other milk products, commercial complementary foods, and feeding equipment (such as bottles, teats, and breast pumps) are currently flooding into Ukraine–according to an article by Baby Milk Action/IBFAN UK. One manufacturer alone recently publicized its donation of 2.5 million CZK (about 100,000 EUR or 100,000 US dollars) worth of formula from the Czech Republic to Ukraine. And these donations are creating very real health and safety risks for babies, young children, and parents.
While targeted distribution of these products is essential to infant survival, sending breastmilk substitutes and associated products to Ukraine - or any emergency situation - outside of a coordinated relief effort knowledgeable about best practices is a bad idea. Here’s why:
Formula donations now threaten to undermine breastfeeding in Ukraine at a time when there are renewed and dedicated efforts to promote and shore up rates of human milk feeding among its people.
In Ukraine before the humanitarian conflict, breastfeeding was initiated in almost all infants - more than 95 per cent. About 20 per cent were exclusively breastfeeding at six months, and at one year, nearly 40 percent of infants still receiving some breastmilk. Lactation support - instead of unsolicited formula donations - was a significant part of the strategy for mothers and young children displaced during the conflict in eastern Ukraine, with 56 per cent still being supported to breastfeed at one year of age in 2015.
In 2014 Ukraine itself issued a strong statement asking the world not to donate breastmilk substitutes, in a statement it made with UNICEF and WHO. And in 2020, the Ukraine Ministry of Health redoubled its commitment to breastfeeding, working alongside UNICEF to pledge support for breastfeeding in public and workplace lactation practices, as well as legislative support for the WHO Code Breastfeeding support is at the heart of national family-friendly policy (unicef.org).
What About Human Milk Donations?
Educate those in your circle that human milk donations should only be sent under certain conditions:
What Can Be Done Instead?