A growing number of new moms are donating breast milk to help sick babies across the country, prompting a Midwest milk bank to open two new drop-off locations in the St. Louis area.
parenting resource center in Maplewood and in O’Fallon, Mo., have joined Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center as depot locations that can safely store, package and ship donated milk to in Indianapolis, which pasteurizes and tests the milk before shipping it to babies in need across the country.
Since opening just over three months ago, the locations have had steady donations.
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“It’s been amazing,” said Amber Sky owner Jaime Lueders. “We’ve done five shipments already. We fill up our freezer quickly.” Each shipment, she said, includes about 11 to 15 boxes containing around 300 ounces of milk each.
Dr. Amy Grawey said they also fill the freezer at Little Flower every week or two. “Mothers who know the benefits of breast milk for their babies know that every baby should be entitled to a full breast milk diet,” Grawey said. “Mothers who have surplus milk want to share that with other women and their babies who don’t have enough.”
Carissa Hawkins, communications coordinator for the Milk Bank, says the nonprofit organization approves about 80 new donor moms a week (requires screening and a blood test, which the Milk Bank pays for).
“We have quite a large donor base in St. Louis that’s growing by leaps and bounds, which is really, really awesome,” Hawkins said. The Milk Bank posted on its in November that it needed more depots in the area in addition to Cardinal Glennon, which has operated as a depot for nearly three years.
Lueders at Amber Sky, which offers breastfeeding support, said moms would often ask what they could do with extra breast milk, so the center immediately jumped on the opportunity to become a depot. The Milk Bank provides each depot with an upright freezer, labeling and shipping supplies.
“We would have a lot of moms come in here who are overproducers with freezers full of milk and didn’t want it to go to waste,” Lueders said. “They came in asking, ‘What can I do?’”
Amber Sky has worked to raise awareness since opening nearly two years ago. The center held its first 5K , 1 mile and kid’s race last August to inform others about milk donation and raise funds for the Milk Bank. The next run will be Aug. 8.
Hawkins credits education efforts for the increase in donors and depot locations. The Milk Bank received 36 percent more milk last year than the previous year, she said. Twelve depots have opened the past year, bringing the total to 45 across the Midwest.
“Donating breast milk is not such a foreign concept,” Hawkins said. “I used to have to talk about how donating breast milk is like donating blood. Now, the idea of breast milk as medicine is a little more normalized.”
The Milk Bank, which opened in 2005, is one of 19 milk banks across the U.S. and Canada that are members of the , which sets guidelines for screening, processing and dispensing.
Mothers of premature or sick babies are often not able to breastfeed because of stress or lactation difficulties, so neonatal intensive care units across the country need breast milk from banks. Outpatients can place orders with a doctor’s prescription. Mothers who cannot nurse and adoptive parents also buy donor milk, but the sickest babies get priority.
Breast milk is easily digested and provides optimal nutrition and protection against organisms and disease. It contains growth factors that protect immature tissue and promote healing. Studies show hospitalized babies given donor milk instead of formula are less likely to suffer fatal complications or infections and spend less time in the hospital.
Denise Broeker was inspired to open the after seeing the benefits firsthand while working as a lactation consultant in the hospital’s intensive care. About 10 years ago, she said, she pushed to give donor milk to the tiny patients.
“We started getting shipments, and the doctors started to notice improvement in the babies’ growth and digestion,” Broeker said. “It was amazing how much better they did. A lot of the small babies that were on full feedings of human milk wouldn’t even need IV fluids. It was unusual to see that, if at all, with formula.”
Now, she said, using donor milk is much more routine in most intensive care units.
In its first year, the Cardinal Glennon depot collected 16,000 ounces of donor milk, and 18,000 ounces the next, Broeker said. She sometimes had to put donations on hold until she had room in the freezer.
“Last year, I just couldn’t keep up,” she said. “Now, it’s much more manageable.”