When a mother's milk isn't available for a sick newborn, pasteurized breast milk donated by other women should be available as an alternative, says the Canadian Pediatric Society. (Nicky Loh/Reuters)

Sick newborns in hospitals should be able to receive pasteurized breast milk donated by other women, but there's not enough available in Canada, pediatricians say.

Human breast milk banking should be encouraged and promoted, the Canadian Pediatric Society said in a new position statement published Monday in Pediatrics & Child Health.

Only about half of the mothers with the most vulnerable babies have enough milk supply for their infant, either because they are sick themselves or because of the stress of having a very sick baby, said Dr. Sharon Unger.

Unger is the principal author of the statement and a member of the society's nutrition and gastroenterology committee.

"When the mother's own milk is unavailable for the sick, hospitalized newborn, pasteurized human donor breast milk should be made available as an alternative feeding choice followed by commercial formula," the position statement said.

Canada's only human milk bank is based in Vancouver but can't supply all the hospitalized babies who need additional breast milk, CPS said.

The document outlines the recommended controls on how and when donor milk should be used.

"I think parents just want to know what level of screening donor moms go through, and once they realize the rigour that milk banks use, they're quite reassured by it," said Unger, a neonatalogist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.

Under North American guidelines, before donating breast milk, the donor must:

• Undergo a screening interview.
• Get her physician's consent.
• Have her blood tested — a process similar to the screening done for blood donors.

Before an infant is given donated milk, a parent or guardian must provide consent — after being informed of the benefits of breast milk, including the banked fluid.

When the milk is shipped to the milk bank, it is cultured, pasteurized to further remove any bacteria, and is then cultured again to check for bacteria, Unger said.

Pasteurized breast milk undergoes minimal changes in terms of its nutritional benefits. Live immunological factors are killed but others are minimally degraded compared with fresh breast milk, Unger said.

Many health authorities recommend breastfeeding as the best choice of nourishment for babies for the first six months of life and beyond. Research suggests human breast milk improves the health and development of the infant and mother and provides benefits that formula can't.