Protecting Newborns, Supporting Breastfeeding

English | Français | Español | العربية | Pусский | 中文 

Breast milk is critical for protecting the health and survival of preterm and vulnerable newborns. When preterm and vulnerable newborns cannot access all the breast milk they need, donor human milk plays a role in ensuring that they can still be exclusively fed human milk.  

The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and countries working to increase access to donor human milk banking as part of their national newborn care strategies came together to launch two new documents that will inform the next chapter of donor human milk banking:

• The WHO Standards for Donor Human Milk Banking, establishing the first global standards for the safety, quality and ethical practice of donor human milk banking. 

• The Implementation Guidance on Donor Human Milk Banking: Organizational characteristics and regulatory classification, jointly published by UNICEF and WHO. 

Attendees heard directly from country representatives about how their country is integrating donor human milk banking into broader newborn care and breastfeeding protection strategies, the approach they chose to fit their national resources and context, and lessons learned. 

This webinar is for the newborn and neonatal community, the global milk banking community, breastfeeding and nutrition advocates, and funders. 

The webinar was held on 22 September 2026. Simultaneous interpretation was available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.