liability question

Hi! I would love to donate milk, but I am too concerned about the possible liability issues. How can one be sure that a mother won't hold her liable if something is wrong with her baby and she suspects in was in the milk. They are always making new discoveries about how what we eat/what is in our environment affects our bodies. How can we know that they won't find that certain toxins end up in our breast milk.

How could I be sure that a mom wouldn't come back later to say my milk led to her LO having autism or ADHD or what have you?

Hi Fendeberry, I am the same as you. I have frozen milk that my daughter doesn't need anymore, and I would love to give it to a family who needs it. But I am just worried about the liability issues.

Does anyone know the answer to this?

I also am concerned about this... when I spoke to my doctor about doing this she brought these concerns up to me. I really want to donate, and still think that I will... but there is so much that can be transmitted through breastmilk. How do I know that in years from now, a recepient won't come back at me with something like this? of course trust is a factor... but I would also feel horrible if my milk hurt another child.

Seriously? I guess I am very trustworthy. I never considered too terribly much what might be in the milk donated to me. I have put my whole trust in the women who have given our daughter this precious chance at a good healthy start to life. If someone knowingly hurt a child, I would be beyond upset. I guess we have to just hope/pray that no one would be so cruel as to harm another living being.

I guess I'm really trusting, too. I never even considered that women may think, after I put over an hour a day into pumping so that their baby can have BM too, that I had something to do with their baby being sick down the road and try to blame me. I can honestly say that that thought never crossed my mind. I guess you could come up with a consent form to anyone that you donated to, if you're concerned about it.

What would it say? I mean I guess it would have to be something to hold the donating Mother harmless? I never would have thought to blame anyone if something went wrong down the road. I don't believe anything in breast milk would ever cause ADHD or Autism. It's just not something you "catch"....and I would hope that any donating Mother would have the love and caring to take the time to reveal anything they are taking which could/would potentially harm a child. We have had some belly aches, and some green poo...but nothing alarming per se that would concern us thus far. My Mother thinks we are nuts for accepting milk from strangers. However, I just don't feel like a stranger when I meet these wonderful donors. Should I be concerned?

I wouldn't be concerned, I mean these women are feeding their own children their breast milk and they certainly wouldn't put their own children in harms way. If you're worried about alcohol content, they sell tests for that. Beyond that, I'm not sure. Personally, I wanted to donate earlier than when I started to actively look for someone, but I wouldn't because of the drugs that I was taking post c-section. I waited until I was completely off of everything, besides the 2 benadryl I had to take and the occasional Ibuprofen, oh and my precious coffee- lol
I have no idea what a consent for would say. I think that if you take the correct measures to get copies of the donors' lab reports than you should be just fine. Maybe it could be as simple as having the recipient sign something saying that they were provided with the donor's lab reports prior to accepting the BM and that they are aware of the risks. I would hope that if someone is taking the steps to provide it for their baby, that they're taking steps to keep them safe at the same time. (Including checking the ID so that it matched up with the report)
And don't most moms that accept BM, accept it from multiple donors? That alone would give someone problems in trying to point the finger at any one donor if they were crazy enough to play the blame game, especially for something random, like autism or ADD, like you mentioned.

Oh, and I LOVE that swing! My Willow has the same one : )

Wow, I never would've thought about that. I guess I'm very trusting - I even had a donor from another state that I didn't meet, but I trusted what she told me about her medical history and figured if she was feeding her own child that she wouldn't be hurting mine either.

I figure it the moms are putting it extra time to pump and store their milk that they wouldn't be doing this to hurt any baby.

I would really hope that we never have to worry about a recipient mom accusing a donor mom of anything - if they're going to do that, they should just use formula!

I guess it totally requires the honor system - both recipient and donor need to act honorably. I have no problem submitting to a blood test, and I didnt even think about it being sued for causing autism or anything else until a friend brought it up. I am just being extra careful, I guess.

I have had milk shipped from 2 out of state places. I haven't had any trouble with the milk. Shipping yes, but not the actual milk

We are Believers and pray over the milk donations, the donors, and our little one. Might sound silly to some, but to us, it means so much that she is getting this blessing.

Well ladies, I am more than willing to accept the breast milk that you have to donate if you would be so kind to donate to my precious daughter. I would hold you harmless. I have 4 sons with Autism (only one was semi-breastfed and that was by ME), and I do not believe Autism can be passed through breastmilk in any fashion. I can pay for shipping, or pick up if local enough for us. I am willing to drive up to 4hrs one way. Please consider Annaliese!

Personally, I've never thought about the liability issues as a donor. I've made my medical history available to those who are interested, I've met families who have met me and mine and see that I'm not strung out or (overly) flaky, I've been clear that I do take some OTC meds as needed, that I occasionally have one or two drinks, that I have up to two cups of coffee a day. I have pumped and not donated that milk when I've been on prescription meds that I know and have double checked are safe for breastfeeding, just because I know my recipient moms may not be comfortable with them. I have been clear that I am willing to have my blood tested on the recipient's dime and to that end have been tested for Hep B as requested by the mom of a newborn. I have been as transparent as possible. And at all times, I am clear that any of the milk I've donated is stuff that I would feed to my child without hesitation, that it is in fact what's left over after I have fed my child.

This is my milk, made of my body to feed my child; I have chosen to spend over an hour a day pumping to feed others' children and half of the time I don't even get any recompense for my expenses. I have a 9 month old and a two year old. I don't need to pump, I could easily spend that time doing other things with and for my family. I do this because I wish I'd known that donor milk was a possibility when I was crying because I had to supplement my first child with formula. I would be so offended if someone accused me of anything.

The trust has to go both ways, you know? I trust that they are in fact feeding my milk to a baby and they trust that I am telling the truth about my history and my habits. If I'm not comfortable with a prospective recipient, I tell them no. If a woman is not comfortable about feeding donor milk or MY milk in particular to her child, that's fine, I trust that she won't ask for my milk.

I had not really considered the liability issue until reading this thread, so I came up with something for myself and the recipient to sign. I am in no way a lawyer, and I'm sure this could be improved upon, but this made me feel a little better.

I,(recipients name), have had the chance to ask whatever questions I had about the donor's(donor's name) lifestyle and health history and they have been answered to my satisfaction. I understand that there are risks associated with breast milk sharing and I agree to hold the donor(donor's name) faultless for any possible negative effects of breastmilk sharing.


I,(donor's name), agree that the information I have provided regarding my lifestyle and health history is true and accurate to the best of my ability.

And we both signed and dated and got a copy.

Hope this helps somebody out there.

As a recipeint, I'd have no problem signing any waiver that might be brought up. I'd never consider blaming a donor mama for my DD illness. Especially since I do get donations from many different donors at once, as mentioned above. But also, I really believe that if they are feeding their own baby, then there is much less of a chance of them having anything that would harm a baby. So, I pretty much just go by that. I will not, however, accept milk from a woman who isn't feeding her own child. Whether that child has been weaned or whatnot, I don't feel comfortable taking breastmilk form a mom that isn't currently using that milk for her own child. Of course if the child just weaned recently, thats another story

Take this for what it's worth, but I am both a lawyer and a donor. I've never felt a need for someone to sign a waiver (not that I think it would help much anyway).
I won't go into a lot of analysis because I'm much more scared of the ethical issues of giving "legal advice" on the internet but just suffice to say that as a donor and lawyer I am comfortable with donating my pumped milk.