Breast Milk Banks Offer Help For Premature Babies
Christine Miles, KOIN 6 News
PORTLAND -- More women in the United States are breast feeding.

The number is the highest seen in last 50 years, but not all babies are getting their own mothers' milk.

A unique operation in Texas provides human milk for premature babies around the country.

Ten-month-old Lilli Anne Jackson easily downs her banana and cheerios. But, it wasn't always so easy to feed her.

Born seven weeks premature, Lilly's tiny stomach couldn't tolerate formula. Unable to produce milk herself, Jackson fed Lilli with donated milk that she got from a human milk bank.

One of only five in the nation, the Austin Milk Bank extensively tests and pasteurizes more than 84,000 ounces of human milk each year.