New organization accepting breastmilk donations to help premature, medically fragile infants

There’s a new way for local moms to help provide life-saving milk for premature and critically ill infants.

The new Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama in Homewood is now acting as human milk depot. The Milk Bank will collect breastmilk donations from lactating women and ship them to The Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas for pasteurization before the donor human milk is shipped out to NICUs in hospitals across the southern United States.

 “We talk about it as liquid gold,” said bank coordinator and Mountain Brook resident Katherine Wood. “It really is life saving for babies in NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), and a lot of times moms of babies in the NICU can’t produce milk. For the most part anyone can give money, but these moms can give a special gift with their breast milk.”

The Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas has received such high demand for the breast milk that it can’t ship to somewhere where it is not receiving donations. That will change once the new Birmingham bank starts to receive donations.

“Once we get milk from donor moms in the Birmingham area, hospitals in Birmingham can start requesting milk,” Wood said.

As human milk donors increase in Birmingham, the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama will transition to full Milk Bank.

The bank asks for donations of 100 ounces, and most moms donate this amount over several months or a year. Once screened, the donor simply brings frozen milk in to the bank.

Wood also noted that the Alabama bank has formed a mom’s advisory council for moms who want to get involved in other ways besides milk donation.

“We think they are going to be the most powerful part of what we do,” Wood said.

Efforts to start Alabama’s first milk bank started with Mary Michael Kelley, executive director of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama. After enduring the death of her second child and the subsequent 8-month NICU hospitalization of her third, she approached her Board of Directors to gauge interest in spearheading the development and incubation of a Mothers’ Milk Bank in Alabama. In the last year it garnered community support by multiple hospitals, nonprofit organizations, community partners and mothers, and currently it has received startup funding support through the Junior League of Birmingham and the Jefferson County Health Advised Fund and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. 

The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama is a program of the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, who champion breastmilk as baby’s first food and seek to support breastfeeding mothers in Alabama.

Nonprofit milk banks including the Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas ensure donor human milk is safe and available to the infants who need it most. The pasteurized breast milk dispensed is specifically processed to meet the specific needs of fragile and sick babies, serving babies with the greatest medical needs, regardless of family’s ability to pay.

The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama is now able to take donations from screened mothers between 8 a.m. and noon Monday through Friday at the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama, which is located at 107 Walter Davis Drive in Homewood. Women who are currently breastfeeding infants under one year old are eligible to be screened at no charge to become human milk (aka breastmilk) donors.

The Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas currently has 475 women donating their surplus breastmilk, but estimates it needs more than 805 donor mothers to meet this year’s projected demand from hospital NICUs for the life-saving nutrition. Another 650 or more volunteer milk donors are needed to meet the demand and fill all orders received from neonatologists.

Potential donor moms are encouraged to call the Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas toll-free at 1-866-810-0071.

To learn more about milk banking or to become a milk donor, visit texasmilkbank.org. For more information about Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama, please email Katherine Wood at kwood@mmbal.org or call 942-8911.