Turkish Women's Beliefs Concerning Human Milk Banking

A donor milk bank provides an alternative source of human milk for mothers who cannot breastfeed or provide their own milk. Although wet-nursing is a common practice, there is currently no donor milk bank in Turkey.

The aims of our study were (1) to determine the knowledge and opinions of Turkish women in regard to donor milk banking; and (2) to raise awareness of donor milk banking.

This was a prospective cross-sectional descriptive study, in which the data were collected with an online survey consisting of 22 questions. The link to the online survey was distributed through the social media accounts of the researchers, with a statement inviting women aged 18-64, who were literate and actively using social media, to participate in the survey. There were 648 female participants.

Of those who responded to the questionnaire, 54.1% had not previously given birth, and 54.2% had heard about donor milk banks before. The implementation of donor milk banks in Turkey was desired by 56.4% of the participants, and 50.8% of the participants considered donating their milk. It was determined that the reasons why the women did not want to benefit from donor milk banks were the risk of disease transmission to the baby and the possibility of their child marrying his or her milk sibling in the future.

It appears that Turkish women lack information about donor milk banking. We recommend public awareness activities to be organized concerning donor milk banking.