Burnaby moms are pumping out a steady stream of donated breast milk, but the B.C. Women’s Provincial Milk Bank still desperately needs more.
The donated breast milk processed by the milk bank is shipped to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in hospitals around the province in a recent push to give fragile premature infants human donor milk instead of formula if their mothers can’t produce their own.
“They had the most serious shortage of milk that they have ever had last fall,” said Sidney Harper, baby friendly initiative project lead for Fraser Health. “We have spread out to other NICUs in the province. Way back in the day, B.C. Women’s was the only hospital using it. As we want to expand the program further to other NICUs, we’re going to need more and more.”
So far this year, Burnaby moms have donated more than 227 litres of breast milk, up from a total of 192 litres last year.
The precious fluid provides babies with antibodies to fight disease and infection.
For more information on how to donate, visit tinyurl.com/milkdonation.
