The Human Milk Bank

Abstract

[The first Human Milk Bank in Great Britain was established at Queen Charlotte‘s Hospital, London, in 1938, through the initiative and under the expert guidance of Miss Edith Dare, then the matron, with the financial assistance of the late Sir Julian Cahn through the National Birthday Trust Fund. This Bank followed closely on the heels of similar banks and bureaux in the United States (which Miss Dare visited in order to study their organisation, equipment and method of working), Germany and the U.S.S.R. The author has recently retired from her post as matron of the Hospital which she has held with distinction for twenty-eight years (she has been connected with the Hospital since 1911) ; but she still retains an active interest in the Human Milk Bank based at the Hospital as honorary director of the former for life. In the following article she describes the founding of the Bank, and reviews the advances made there and elsewhere since its inception.— EDITORS.]