Donor milk program
A mother’s breast milk offers many health benefits to their newborns. However, some women can’t exclusively nurse because of low milk supply, certain medications, illness, adoption or surrogacy.
That’s where our donor milk program can help. Through this program, at-risk Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) babies can receive breast milk donations, which greatly increase their chances of surviving and thriving.
Life-saving benefits of receiving human milk in the NICU include:
- Lower risk of necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious gastrointestinal disease
- Decreased risk of retinopathy of prematurity, a potentially blinding eye disease
- Fewer infections
- Shorter length of stay in the NICU by about two weeks
- Less feeding intolerance and diarrhea
How the breast milk donation program works
- Donating human milk: To donate milk under Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) guidelines, a woman must undergo medical tests including HIV and hepatitis blood tests and meet specific criteria. Once the breast milk donation is approved, they ship or bring their donated milk to a milk depot, where it’s frozen and shipped to a milk bank for processing.
- Pasteurization: At the milk bank, the milk is pooled and pasteurized to destroy viruses and bacteria. The milk is tested to ensure it’s safe.
- Donor human milk banks: Advocate Children’s Hospital receives donor human milk from the The Milk Bank in Indiana and Mother’s Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes.
How to get donated breast milk
Your baby in the NICU will get 100% donated human milk after we receive your parental consent.
Breast milk depot at Advocate
Our donor milk program follows the guidelines established by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), which regulates breast milk donation and banking. Milk depots facilitate breast milk donations. At Advocate, a registered nurse who is board certified in lactation helps with every aspect of the breast milk donation, including testing and milk shipment.
In its first six months of operation, our donor milk program provided nearly 3,000 ounces of pasteurized donor human milk to babies. That success inspired us to provide even more donor milk services. In January 2012, Advocate Lutheran General Hospital began screening potential human milk donors and accepting milk, making us home to the first milk depot in northern Illinois.
