1: Surrogate Has Excess Breast Milk

If you have no obligation to provide milk to your intended parents and if your milk supply is established, we invite you to apply to donate your breast milk. You can donate newly expressed milk or previously collected frozen milk (up to 10 months from date of expression) as long as it is clearly marked with month, day and year and time of expression. You can expect the entire qualification process to take about 4 to 6 weeks. You will receive step-by-step information throughout the process so you know what to expect each step of the way.

2: Online Application and Review

To be eligible to donate your excess breast milk, you must first complete an online application. The application includes Donor Agreements with Prolacta Bioscience and a Medical History Survey with about 80 questions. The questions are very similar to questions you would answer prior to donating blood and should take about 45-60 minutes to complete. Once your application is processed, you will receive an email from the milk bank with detailed information on the next steps. You can typically expect to hear back within 10 business days of submitting your application.

3: Medical Confirmation Forms

The breast milk you donate will be used to create nutritional formulations for critically-ill, premature infants. To ensure the quality of the product, we require that our donors have their medical provider sign a confirmation form ensuring that she is healthy, and that it is okay for her to donate her expressed milk.

4: Breast Milk Donor Testing

If you are a new donor, we will send you a donor test kit that includes a thermometer to measure the temperature of the freezer (s) in which you plan to store your milk, as well as vials for collecting blood samples and a DNA collection swab. We will arrange for a blood screening test by a national laboratory (at no charge to you). You will also be asked to provide a cheek swab to create a DNA identity profile that will be used for matching the DNA in your breast milk to that profile. This is to ensure we only receive milk from donors who have been screened, and it is an important step for ensuring the safety of the milk that will be used to feed critically-ill, premature infants. If you are a returning donor, the donor requalification test kit will include vials for a new blood test and may include a thermometer (if you are returning with a new baby).

5: Financial & Tax Forms

Applicants must have a Social Security Number (SSN) or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) and are required to complete a W9 Form and Direct Deposit (ACH) Form in order to become qualified and receive payment. Applicants who are in the process of obtaining either number must wait to begin the qualification process.

6: Labeling, Filling, Freezing and Packing Breast Milk Donations

Prolacta will provide you with breast milk storage bags and instructions on how to collect, label, and store breast milk for donation. Once you are qualified, you will receive detailed instructions for packing and shipping your breast milk to Prolacta.

7: Milk is received at Prolacta

See how your milk is received at Prolacta and prepared for use in making potentially life-saving human milk nutritional products for premature babies.