title: Breast milk banking: current opinion and practice in Australian neonatal intensive care units.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find out the knowledge and attitudes of health-care professionals (HCPs) in Australian neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) towards breast milk banking (BMBg) and pasteurised donated breast milk (PDBM).
  
  
  METHODS
  Cross-sectional structured survey of HCPs in all 25 NICUs in Australia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Response rate was 43.4% (n= 358 of 825). Participants included nurses and midwives (291, 81.3%) and the remainder were neonatologists and neonatal trainees (67, 18.7%). A variable number of HCPs agreed that PDBM would decrease the risk of necrotising enterocolitis (81%) and allergies (48.9%), 8.4% thought PDBM will carry risk of infections and 78.8% agreed that PDBM is preferable over formula, but only 67.5% thought that establishing breast milk banks (BMBs) are justifiable. Significant differences were found between doctors and nurses/midwives, with 19.4% of doctors compared with 5.8% of nurses/midwives agreed that PDBM carried an increased risk of infection. Although, over 90% of nurses/midwives and 70% of doctors agreed that the donation of breast milk is important, only 71% of nurses/midwives and 52.2% of doctors thought that setting up a BMB was justifiable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The opinions about BMBg differ widely between HCPs; however, the majority support the practice. HCPs had different knowledge gaps in regard to BMBg. Nurses/midwives positively view the practice of BMBg more strongly compared with neonatologists.
authors.affiliation: The Clinical School, Australian National University Medical School, Garran, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: Eva Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.forename: Zsuzsoka
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kecskés
authors.forename: Mohamed E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Abdel-Latif
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D008880:Midwifery; D017784:Milk Banks; D008895:Milk, Human