Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices of mothers about wet-nursing and human milk banking in Kayseri, Turkey.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in the family healthcare centers of four community health care centers in Kayseri Province. The questionnaire form was fulfilled with face-to-face interviews of 614 participants.
Results: Of the mothers, 88.9% had heard about wet-nursing, 10.9% had a wet-nurse of her own, 5.2% had a wet-nurse of her child, and 5.0% had been a wet-nurse of another child. Wet-nurses were chosen mostly from relatives. Of the mothers, 93.6% stated that they had not heard about milk banking, whereas 97.2% did not know its purpose and services. More than half of the mothers (61.6%) thought human milk banking as a right application, whereas 75.4% of the mothers who thought that it was not right were against it because they believed marriage between foster milk siblings was religiously forbidden. Most of the mothers (79.8%) stated that they could milk for another child, and 56.2% identified that they could donate breast milk to the human milk bank.
Conclusion: More than half of the mothers thought that milk banking was a correct application. Mothers who were opposed to milk banking showed religious justifications as reasons. Placing the subjects “milk banks” and “human milk donorship” during education on breast milk in hospitals is important in terms of increasing the awareness of mothers.