Ivinson Memorial Hospital Begins Human Milk Donation Program

Ivinson Memorial Hospital's Family Care Unit is excited to open a human milk donation center on February 2nd, 2015. IMH is joining the network of Mothers’ Milk Bank, a Colorado based, nonprofit program benefiting women and babies nationwide.

Ivinson is the first human milk donation collection site in the state of Wyoming.  Mothers with extra breast milk can make a difference in babies' lives by donating their extra milk to Mothers’ Milk Bank.

Mothers’ Milk Bank is a nonprofit program of the Rocky Mountain Children's Health Foundation. They safely screen, process and dispense human milk to families who cannot supply the milk to meet their babies’ needs. The milk is sent to more than 120 hospitals in 24 states, supplying milk to babies across the country who were born prematurely, have allergies to formula, are fighting certain illnesses or otherwise need human milk to thrive.  According to a recent release, Mothers’ Milk Bank consistently provides more milk to NICU's than any other nonprofit milk bank in North America and adheres to the strict guidelines of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America.

Donor milk qualifications include first and foremost that a woman has milk in excess of her own baby’s needs.  Further qualifications include excellent health, no blood products in the last 12 months, and no history of hepatitis, HIV or AIDS. She must be a non-smoker and be willing to have blood testing completed.

Once a woman has passed the required screening process, she can drop her milk off at Ivinson Memorial Hospital. Ivinson will safely transport the milk donations to Mothers’ Milk Bank where it will be pasteurized and distributed to babies at Ivinson and across the country.

Women interested in giving the gift of human milk may fill out the donation screening form on the Mothers’ Milk bank website, www.milkbankcolorado.org, or call 303-869-1888. Mothers’ Milk Bank will contact the Family Care Unit Staff at Ivinson Memorial Hospital when a mother is ready to donate.