Indiana Mother's Milk Bank opens 2nd milk bank collection depot in Kentucky

Indiana Mother's Milk Bank has opened a second out-of-state collection depot with a Lexington, Kentucky depot joining the one in Louisville. The Indiana Mother's Milk Bank also operates seven in-state collection depots at Bloomington, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Lafayatte, Michigan City, Muncie, an South Bend.

"Lexington organization, Mother Nurture, to house a human milk donation drop off site | Our Neighbors and Families: Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Lexington business Mother Nurture – a Breastfeeding Resource Center and Baby Boutique – will join forces with the Indiana Mothers’ Milk Bank to collect donor human milk at the first donation drop off location in Central Kentucky beginning Jan. 26. Carefully screened donors will deliver their human milk to Mother Nurture’s Milk Depot, where it will be frozen and stored until it is transported to the Indiana Mother’s Milk Bank, which provides pasteurized donor human milk to ill or premature infants throughout Indiana and the Midwest...."

Minnesota moms encouraged to supplement with donor milk and not infant formula

A Minnesota hospital's human donor milk program has been expanded to include all infants who need to be supplemented, up from only high risk infants, after additional funding was received. Of the moms who are told they need to supplement, 80 per cent are chosing donor milk, says the maternity care centre clinical director at Woodwinds Health Campus in Woodbury, Minnesota. That makes sense - Minnesota has an 80 per cent breastfeeding initiation rate. I wonder if this program will succeed in improving the duration of mothers exclusively breastfeeding at 6 months. If moms are seeing health care providers walk their talk by encouraging supplementation with human milk instead of infant formula right at birth, will it translate into better duration rates?

Moms choosing donor milk at Woodwinds | Woodbury Bulletin | Woodbury, Minnesota: ...Over the last four months, Woodwinds has been offering donor human milk to all newborns whose families choose to use it.

The program began about three years ago but was only available to at-risk infants who needed donor milk to grow, said Jeanette Schwartz, clinical director of maternity care center at Woodwinds.

After a donation was made to the HealthEast Foundation specifically for the donor milk program, it was made available to all families.

Then the use of it spiked.

“They really do want this, they want to try to avoid using artificial milk,” Schwartz said. “There are some risks to artificial formula and they just want to have this option available to them.”...