UKRI Future Leaders Fellow @imperialcollege; Cofounder @heartsmilkbank, @milk_foundation GAMBA. Building research and education networks with @GillyWeaver. MBE.
Mar 5, 2021 • 11 tweets • 5 min read
Nearly a year since the UK's first lockdown when life became... busy.
A pandemic 40 years ago effectively ended human milk banking in the UK for most hospitals. Although no cases of HIV being transmitted through donor milk were recorded, they were deemed too ££ to maintain. 🧵/
Milk banks in the UK now operate according to the @NICEComms Clinical Guideline, specifically developed to limit risk from existing infections that can enter human milk, but also to prevent future pathogens becoming a safety concern.
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Nov 11, 2020 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
New paper! Published today in @Nutrients_MDPI showing human milk composition is broadly stable in a snapshot of mothers feeding infants up 24 months.
The story behind the paper... 🧵
mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/1…
Back in 2017 I'd worked my toes off to set up @heartsmilkbank with @GillyWeaver, aiming to create a milk bank not only large enough to ensure preterm babies always would have access to donor milk, but that could enable research into all aspects of donation and human milk. 2/
Oct 9, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
🧵 I never saw a future that I'd be sad to see my article published in @TheLancet. But in many ways this feels too late.
When the original paper came out in May, my coauthors and I were stunned. 1/
thelancet.com/journals/lance…
The original article was flawed in methodology and conclusions, while not overtly written as such, indicated to the global health community and policymakers that #covid19 could be transmitted through breastfeeding. 2/
