Human Milk Banking: Sustainability of Donor Human Milk for Vulnerable Infants

Donor human milk is the best alternative for feeding vulnerable infants when their mother’s own milk is unavailable or not available in sufficient quantities. In many countries human milk donation is not sustainable enough to meet the demand. While sustainability is recognized as central in efficient donation systems such as human blood supply, this concept is merely absent from the literature on milk donation. The aim of this PhD thesis is to identify and investigate key factors that influence the sustainability of human milk donation to not-for-profit milk banks to inform evidence-based strategies for sustainable collection of donor human milk. The study design is an exploratory mixed-methods sequential study with 5 phases to investigate donation sustainability at macro level (policy and guidelines), mezzo level (milk banks stakeholders) and micro level (human milk donors). This work will provide necessary knowledge to help design sustainable human milk donation systems and increase human milk provision for vulnerable infants in need.