Caring Causes: Milk Banks

This holiday season, nonprofit milk banks are issuing an urgent call for donations in an effort to avoid a shortage of milk for fragile newborns in neonatal intensive care units in the United States and Canada.  Nonprofit milk banks serve vulnerable infants whose doctors have prescribed donated milk to help protect against devastating infections. The current shortage means that there is already not enough milk to meet the needs of hospitalized infants in all 50 states and Canada.

The Human Milk Bank Association of North America (HMBANA) has issued an emergency call for donations.  HMBANA is a national nonprofit organization with 13 established milk banks in the U.S. and Canada.  

 “Lactating moms who donate their extra milk are sharing a true gift: the ability to help another baby thrive,” says Kim Updegrove, a certified nurse midwife and executive director of the Mother’s Milk Bank in Austin.

HMBANA’s nonprofit milk bank affiliates receive surplus milk and dispense it after the donated milk is pasteurized and tested.