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When a preterm baby who weighs less than three pounds, three ounces is born, it's unlikely mom's milk has come in. And, if it has, it's typically not enough to support her critically ill baby while in the NICU. In the past, formula was given to these babies, but studies recently discovered a 100% human milk diet reduces the risk of NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis), a dangerous intestinal disease and the most common surgical emergency in premature infants.
NEC is not just a threat while the baby is in the NICU, but babies who develop the disease can have feeding and have nutritional issues for the rest of their lives. But a new mom may not be able to pump enough milk to support her preemie so fortifiers are made using donated milk from moms who are blessed with an excess. If you have an excess, you can donate it to be processed into specialty formulations for the nutritional needs of the critically ill preemies in the neonatal intensive care units.
The first, and most important, thing is to make sure breastfeeding your baby is established before you decide to donate. You can donate excess newly pumped milk or previously collected frozen milk up to 10 months from date of pumping. You can expect the entire breastmilk donation qualification process to take three to four weeks.
You first complete an online application and your primary caregiver and your baby’s pediatrician sign a medical review form. Once these are complete, a blood test will determine if the milk you're providing is safe for preemies from the point-of-view of preventing transmissible diseases. Then a DNA swab is taken to match to your donations every time you send in milk. Once approved, you are given freezer bags and shipping materials to make it easy to donate milk.
Once your milk arrives in a testing facility, it is matched with your DNA swab and tested. The tests ensure no other types of milk or water has been added to either increase or dilute the milk donated. The milk is also screened for the presence of illicit drugs. Your donation is turned into human milk fortifier, caloric fortifier, and standardized donor human milk. These are available for preemies in hospitals throughout the world.
Standardized human milk is processed to ensure it always has similar calories and protein that would be found in mother's milk if i were available. These critically ill preemies are able to get the nutrition they need to grow while being fed exclusively human milk. When you donate to a milk bank associated with us, we contribute $1 for every ounce you donate to Susan G. Komen for the Cure in support of breast cancer research.
This important cause was chosen because studies show a correlation between breastfeeding and a reduction in a woman's risk of developing breast cancer.