Why the Preemies Milk Bank Exists

Our mission is to collect breast milk from qualified surrogate mothers for premature infants. In the absence of human milk donors, there would not be a way to provide human milk fortifier and standardized human milk processed from 100% human breast milk to babies in need. We appreciate your breast milk donation and want to make the experience as pleasant as possible. Your generous donation is valued highly by the medical community as well as the families with preterm, sick babies.

How It Works

One of the unique things about Preemies Milk Bank is our ability to accept surrogate mother donor milk from all over the United States. The donation process can be done from the comfort of your home. To be eligible to donate your breastmilk, you must first complete an online application. The application includes Donation Agreements with Prolacta Bioscience and a Medical History Survey, which consists of about 80 questions. Once your application is processed, you will receive additional qualification materials, consisting of a medical confirmation form for your healthcare provider to complete, testing materials for completing a blood test to screen for various viruses, performing a DNA cheek swab to match incoming breastmilk, and testing the freezer(s) in which breastmilk for donation will be stored.Preemies Milk Bank will also provide breast milk storage containers and shipping supplies, all at no charge to the qualified donor. The qualification process generally takes 4 to 6 weeks and is good for 180 days before re-qualification testing is required.
 

What We Do

Your valuable breast milk donation will be used to make human milk fortifier and standardized human milk from 100% human milk. Both will be available for very low birth weight infants, seriously ill babies in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across the United States. While a mother's breast milk can provide a large percentage of her premature baby's needs, premature infants need more protein and calories than are naturally occurring in mother's milk. Through consumption of concentrated human milk protein, in the form of a human milk fortifier from 100% human milk, critically ill premature babies are able to get the nutrition they need to grow while being fed exclusively human milk. Also, when mother's own milk is not available in the NICU, standardized human milk is made from your donation and can be used to ensure a 100% human milk diet in the NICU. Standardized human milk is processed to ensure that it always has similar calories and protein that would be found in mother's milk if milk from the mother of the premature baby were available.