Lactating Burnaby moms have poured on the generosity this year.
Breast milk donations between January and June were more than double what they were during the same period last year, according to the Fraser Health Authority.
“Twice a year we check in with all of our milk depots, and they send us their tallies and we do a grand total,” spokesperson Tasleem Juma told the NOW.
For Burnaby the total jumped from 67, 570 millilitres 118,636 ml, she said.
Milk donation across all of Fraser Health’s 17 milk depots increased from 551,204 ml to 882,257 ml, an increase of 331,053 ml.
In April 2015, Fraser Health signed a first-of-its-kind agreement with the Ministry of Health and the Provincial Health Services Authority, which oversees B.C. Women’s Hospital and the B.C. Women’s Provincial Milk Bank.
Fraser Health collects donor milk at each of its 17 public health units and ships it to the milk bank, which processes it and ships it back to the health authority’s neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to feed to vulnerable newborn babies.
Fraser Health officials said stories published in the NOW about the arrangement helped boost local donations.
“Our program credits, in part, the news stories your papers printed in the spring and summer of last year for this incredible result,” Juma stated in an email.
