Just a few days ago we knew the data of babies who benefit from donated breast milk. They are many, but they could be many more because Spain is at the tail of the European Union in breast milk banks.
There are two banks of breast milk in Spanish territory. The first, which has been operating since 2001, is located in the Balearic Islands, and the second, with only a year and a half of operation open at the end of 2007, is that of the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid.
France and Germany have no less than 15 functioning breast milk banks, other countries such as Denmark and some eastern countries have a considerable number of milk donation facilities, but Spain is among the least, only behind Portugal, Greece and Albania.
Like other countries, Spanish donors receive, process, and store milk donated by nursing mothers who deliver it altruistically for the benefit of thousands of children, most of them premature.
In the case of the bank of the Balearic Islands, only 3 or 4 hospitals to which it supplies are benefiting from milk and in the case of Madrid, only children admitted to the Neonatology Unit of the hospital itself.
Therefore, the creation of more milk banks in Spain is necessary as well as a greater promotion of the importance of breastfeeding and more information about donations, since many mothers are unaware of this system, who and how to be a donor.
It is possible that if the number of constant donations by mothers increases, new creations of breastmilk banks are proposed. For something you must start.
