OTTAWA – Ottawa now has a human milk depot at the OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center. The center will be collecting human milk donations from healthy, lactating women who are approved donors through Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Wester Great Lakes. The donations are then sent to the milk bank, where they are pasteurized to eliminate any viruses and bacteria. After pasteurization, the milk is tested once again for safety and distributed to hospitals.
“Rigorous safety protocols ensure that pasteurized donor human milk is safe when it’s provided from a milk bank that adheres to guidelines from the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Potential donors are blood tested and thoroughly screened for communicable diseases, activities that increase the risk of blood borne diseases, and the use of tobacco, alcohol, and medications,” says Summer Kelly, Executive Director of Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes. “Milk collected from OSF HealthCare Saint Elizabeth Medical Center’s milk depot will help support the complex nutritional needs of sick and premature babies in Illinois and Wisconsin.”
According to OSF, pasteurized donor human milk is an important nutritional therapy for many at-risk Neonatal Intensive Care Unit babies, as it provides numerous benefits in the absence of the mother’s milk, including infection-fighting factors, active growth and development hormones, improved digestion and ideal nutrition.
To learn more about how you can donate, visit www.milkbankwgl.org/donate-milk/ and fill out the Donor Interest Form. You will be contacted to complete a 10-15 minute phone screening. If you are a good candidate, you will receive a full donor application.
Mon - Fri: 03:00 PM - 07:00 PM
