Milk Banking
As the importance of breastfeeding becomes a more mainstream concept, breast milk becomes a commodity that is desperately needed by many families that cannot provide it for their children. Some of you may have heard about mother's sharing their milk via forums online, community groups or by actually nursing each other's babies. Here at Healthy Babies, Happy Moms, we occasionally hear of women with an abundant supply who lament, "I don't know what I am going to do with all this milk!" A problem most of you wish you had, I know!
In January of 2013, HBHM got actively involved in helping with this issue. We became an official Milk Bank Depot for the Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast (MMBNE). A depot is a local community collection site for human milk from volunteer donors. Rhode Island mothers with extra milk can bring it to our office in East Greenwich. We will store the donated milk and then ship it to Boston in batches so that it can be processed by the MMBNE. They will then ship it out for use in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) throughout New England.
Many of you know that my background is as a NICU nurse working with premature babies, so this cause is very important to me. I have seen firsthand the devastating and heartbreaking effects of formula feeding a baby whose intestines are too fragile to handle it. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be actively involved in preventing that.
What can you do to help? We are looking for mothers who meet the following criteria:
have a healthy baby under one year and produce more milk than their baby needs
have a baby who has a intolerance to lactose or other foods and would like to donate milk her baby can no longer eat
have a premature baby for whom they are pumping more than the baby can consume
have a baby who has died and are willing to donate milk they pumped for their baby and in some cases continue to pump
Interested mothers will be screened by the MMBNE, who will only accept milk from lactating mothers who have been carefully screened for health behaviors and communicable diseases. All donors must complete a verbal and written questionnaire, and have their blood tested. Once a mother successfully completes the screening, the MMBNE will notify us that we can accept her milk and she is free to donate. If you are interested in donating, please click here for more information. If you think you meet the qualifications, call MMBNE 617-527-6263 or email donate@milkbankne.org to begin the screening process.
Both HBHM Inc. and the MMBNE will strictly adhere to the guidelines of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Our most important function as a depot is to ensure the safety of donated milk prior to reaching the MMBNE facilities. We will be passionate about this safety and the education of the community regarding donation and milk banking.
When we first launched our depot, it was our hope that milk donated at our depot would then make its way back to Rhode Island where it could be used by Women and Infants Hospital NICU in their research. At that time "A study was being conducted at WIH and among 17 other major Neonatal Intensive Care Units across the country to determine if donor milk given to extremely premature babies provides health advantages while in the hospital and at 2 years of age compared to feeding formulas produced for premature infants. At present mothers who deliver a premature baby and are not able to produce breast milk have no options for milk feedings other than premature formula. Donor milk is being studied for this purpose." (Angelita Hensman BSN, RNC-NIC, Research Manager) I am happy to report that this research helped to facilitate a policy change that made donor milk the standard of care in the NICU at Women and Infants in 2021. I’d like to think that our donating mothers played a part in that change!
