Views of Postnatal Mothers Regarding Human Milk Banking

Kilci Ş. al. Views of postnatal mothers regarding human milk banking. Med Black Sea. 2021;5(3):435-443. ABSTRACT Aim: This study was carried out to determine the views of postnatal mothers regarding human milk banking. Material and Methods: The study was conducted on between 25 June 2019 and 1 January 2020 at Zonguldak Bulent Ecevit University Health Practice and Research Center. A questionnaire was applied to 244 mothers who were hospitalized in the obstetrics service.The data were collected using a questionnaire prepared by the researchers. In this form, questions regarding human milk banking prepared in accordance with the literature and the socio-demographic characteristics of the mothers were included. Data analysis was carried out with SPSS 23.0 statistics program. Results: The mean age of postnatal mothers was 29.9. Of the mothers, 41% were primary school / secondary school graduates, 79.5% were living in nuclear families and 74.6% were unemployed. The majority of mothers (73.4%) wanted human milk banks in Turkey to be active, 72.5% considered donating their milk if there were a milk bank, 57.4% would like to benefit from the milk bank. A statistical difference was found between the socio-demographic status of the mothers (age, education, employment status, family type and number of children alive) and the condition whether or not the milk bank caused problems in terms of religion (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was determined that the majority of mothers would like to donate to the milk bank and get milk there. However, it was also stated that the presence of milk bank would lead to some problems (milk sibling marriage, feeling of inadequacy in mothers, risk of disease transmission and religious reasons, etc.). Despite the benefits of human milk banking, ethical dilemmas, traditional beliefs and attitudes, myths, concerns about the safety of milk and lack of information should be discussed.