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For medically fragile infants, human milk isn't just nutrition. It is life-saving medicine.
Donor human milk can save the lives of our most critically ill
babies. But because we do not have a human milk bank in our region,
our most fragile infants don’t have access.
Help us secure the equipment we need to open a donor milk bank .
Without breast milk, medically fragile babies, such as those born
very prematurely, are at increased risk for serious complications.
Complications that can lengthen the NICU stay, cause life long
disability, or even result in death. Most NICU Moms have
significant difficulty providing all their baby needs. Any non-human
protein given to such an infant increases risk.
There is no medical intervention that replicates the protection of
Mother's Milk.
Pasteurized milk from screened donors is used in most hospitals throughout the country. It works. No hospital in Southwestern PA or WV currently uses donor milk. They all want to and this summer we are going to make that happen.
Having an exclusive human milk diet has a profound effect on short and long term outcomes of babies in our neonatal intensive care units (NICU). A human milk diet provides the very best protection from a number of devastating complications.
Unfortunately, up to 70% of mothers with babies in the NICU are not able to produce all of the milk that their babies need in the first few weeks of life. Generous women are often willing to share their extra human milk, but for our most fragile babies, that milk must be pasteurized at a milk bank to ensure safety.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) now recommends that all babies under 3.4lbs. receive donor human milk from a milk bank if their own mother’s milk is unavailable. We need your help to bring a milk bank to our region so that we can achieve those guidelines.
Donated and pasteurized human milk is the answer for critically ill babies. It is a cost effective, proven solution that decreases infant mortality rates and sends more healthy babies home to their families.
Donor Human Milk Saves Lives and Health Care Dollars:
- There are over 140,000 infants born in Pennsylvania and West Virginia each year, nearly 11% prematurely.
- 10% of all babies born before 32 weeks gestation develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a serious inflammation of their intestines. 25% of babies with NEC will die. The use of donor human milk decreases the risk of NEC by 80% and eliminates nearly all NEC deaths.
- Each NICU baby that receives donor human milk saves over $8000 in health care costs.
- Babies who receive donor human milk have lower rates of serious infections, leave the NICU earlier, and have higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding upon discharge.
- Donor human milk can also be prescribed for a variety of conditions other than prematurity such as allergies, malabsorption disorders, immunological issues, and post-surgical nutrition.
Our Physicians, Birth, and Breastfeeding Professionals Are Coming Together To Build A Milk Bank
We are a group of local doctors (including physicians from each Level 3 NICU in the Greater Pittsburgh area), researchers, and members of the birth and breastfeeding community who saw the impact on babies when they didn’t have access to human milk.
We have come together with nonprofit professionals to form a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The Three Rivers Mothers’ Milk Bank is officially recognized as a “developing milk bank” by Human Milk Banking Association of North America, which sets guidelines regarding the screening of donors, the processing of milk, and distribution. We believe that, by providing donor human milk in our region, we will dramatically impact the lives of our most vulnerable babies. We hope to open our human milk bank in 2015 where we will screen donors, collect their milk, process and pasteurize it and distribute into our community.
The Milk Bank Process: From Generous Donations To Safe Donor Milk For Fragile Babies
Milk banks are sustained by the generosity of healthy lactating women who are willing to share pumped milk above and beyond what their own infant(s) needs. Donors are typically “abundant” milk producers who pump extra milk after meeting the needs of their own babies (though banks also receives milk under other circumstances, such as after the death of an infant). Every donor passes a rigorous screening process that includes an interview, statement of health from their healthcare provider, and a blood screening identical to that done by blood banks. After screening, they pump, store, and deliver their milk to the milk bank where it is processed.
At the milk bank, the donor milk is thawed, bottled and pasteurized. It is labeled and frozen, ready to be distributed to our hospitals and to outpatients on a prescription basis.
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