Milk Banks Need More Donors: How You Can Help!
Did you know that The Breastfeeding Center partners with the Milk Bank of Austin as a collection site for milk donations? The Milk Bank of Austin is just one of thirty-two operating milk banks in North America and Canada. These banks are vital for providing lifesaving, nourishing donor human milk to babies that are in need. We often receive inquiries from parents in and around our community who are interested in becoming donors. While we are not a part of the screening and approval process, we write in hopes to urge you to donate if you have the capacity to do so. This is an all call to families to become donors if possible, the most fragile babies need your help.
Why donate?
Every year, over 72,000+ medically fragile babies are born each year.. These babies may be too sick, too small, or born too early, and more than 60% of those NICU parents do not yet have enough milk to meet the needs of their little one. This milk not only helps those vulnerable babies to develop, but protect them from so many complications, including RSV, colds, the flu, respiratory infections, and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and more. Donor Human Milk continues to be a strong defense to minimize infections and allergens while promoting cognitive and behavioral development in infants. Additionally, when milk is available, the milk bank also provides donor milk for healthy babies that have a prescribed need for donor milk.
There is absolutely always a need for new donors, and many milk banks across the country experiences shortages at various times of the year. Each milk bank is committed to filling the gap, but to do so, they need your help. If you are a lactating person who has milk to spare and meet the below criteria, please don’t hesitate to reach out to milkbank.org or call 512-494-0800 to begin the screening process.
Who can donate, and What’s the screening process like?
Parents who typically donate are:
Donors are in their first year postpartum
Donors may be exclusive pumpers or combination feeding with extra milk to spare; they may have also built up a freezer stash they do not need. They may also be allotting an extra pump to donate.
Donors may also be surrogates or bereaved parents.
Screening Process:
Phone Interview: You’ll have a less formal phone interview with a donor milk advocate for an initial pre-screening to ensure you’re a good fit and give you an overview of the donation process.
Online forms: you’ll fill out a detailed formal confidential form online
Blood Work. MMBA will then send you to one of their labs for a blood draw to free blood test to confirm that you don't have any communicable diseases that could be passed through your breast milk donation.
Decision & Approval: When all safety screening boxes have been checked off, you’ll be notified of approval. Then you’ll be ready to drop off your donations at a location like ours.
When the Milk is Donated, What happens to it?
When the milk is donated to one of the 50+ collection sites like The Breastfeeding Center, we repackage and send each donation off to our milk bank (MMBA). If you don’t live near one of the locations, the milk bank will ship boxes out to you and pay for the shipping and handling. The milk is then carefully tested, pasteurized, and tested again prior to being dispensed to hospitals and later outpatient clinics all over the country for families that need them. This process is thorough to ensure the human donor milk suitable for even the most vulnerable littles. Explore the process further here.
Why the urgency?
Milk banks across the country are doing their best to meet the huge demand for milk, however there is always more need. Your milk can absolutely save lives. You could save a life. Every ounce of milk counts. Read these babies stories and see the impact that donor human milk has had on infants.
If you want to donate, but can’t donate milk, there are other ways to support. It takes a village all over the world to make these processes happen! You can volunteer your time with milk banks, donate funds to the research teams or directly to charitable care which ensures that each infant, regardless of insurance or financial resources, receives donor human milk. You can also fundraise. There are so many ways to support the cause, you can find more info here