Research Article Attitudes towards Donor Breast Milk in an Inner City Population Abhinav Pal, Kultida Soontarapornchai, Lawrence Noble , and Ivan Hand Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Kings County Hospital Center, SUNY Downstate School of Medicine, Brooklyn, New York 11203, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Ivan Hand; ivan.hand@nychhc.org Received 31 May 2018; Revised 14 October 2018; Accepted 25 October 2018; Published 1 January 2019 Academic Editor: F. J. Kaskel Copyright © 2019 Abhinav Pal et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Te purpose of our study was to identify attitudes towards donor breast milk in our population and identify barriers to its acceptance. Methods. Te study sample was comprised of a convenience sample of 174 postpartum women. A questionnaire consisting of demographic information and 12 questions relating to attitudes and understanding of donor breast milk was administered. Results. Among the mothers surveyed, 34% were aware of the use of donor breast milk and donor milk banks. 62% of mothers preferred the use of formula compared to donor breast milk if they were unable to provide their own breast milk. Educational level did play a role with 64% of mothers with education beyond high school believing that donor breast milk was benefcial for newborns as opposed to 46% with a high school education or less (p=0.02). US born mothers were more likely to have heard about donor breast milk (47% versus 29%, p=0.025) than foreign born mothers although they were less likely to believe it was a better option for feeding than formula (22.7% versus 43%, p=.016). Mothers with infants in the NICU were more likely than mothers of well babies to accept milk from a milk bank ratherthan a relative or friend (81% versus 39%, p≤0.001). Conclusion. Although the benefcial efects of donor breast milk are well established in the scientifc community, there remains a lack of awareness and a major discrepancy in the understanding and acceptance of it within our community. Education on the benefts of mother’s own milk as well as donor breast milk and milk banks is an important public health initiative needed to increase acceptance of human milk as the optimal form of nutrition in infants. 1. Introduction Te American Academy of Pediatrics has reafrmed its recommendation that infants be exclusively breastfed for the frst 6 months of life and that human milk is the optimal form of nutrition for infants [1]. Breastfeeding has been associated with signifcant improvements in outcomes including decreased rates of infection, obesity and improved neurodevelopment [2–6]. Preterm infants fall into an espe- cially critical category with respect to their susceptibility to infection, necrotizing enterocolitis, feeding intolerance and generally increased morbidity and mortality [7–10]. When mother’s own milk is unavailable the use of donor human milk is recommended [1, 11]. Donor human milk has been shown to ofer several advantages over formula feeds, including lower rates of infection and feeding intolerance [12, 13]. Despite the benefcial efects of human milk, signifcant racial and ethnic diferences remain between groups [14, 15]. Black mothers’ intentions to breastfeed as well as initiation and duration of breastfeeding were signifcantly less than white mothers. Poverty also was found to be a signifcant mediator of diferences in breastfeeding initiation and intent [15]. As we sought to introduce donor breast milk into our inner city NICU we chose to study the attitudes of mothers towards its use in our population. Te purpose of our study was to identify the attitudes towards donor breast milk in our community and identify barriers to its acceptance. 2. Methods Tis study was conducted between July and August 2015 at Kings County Hospital, located in Brooklyn, NY. Te study sample was comprised of a convenience sample of 174 Hindawi International Journal of Pediatrics Volume 2019, Article ID 3847283, 4 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3847283