We are working to bring a nonprofit milk bank to Georgia.

Human milk is a critical intervention for at-risk infants. While we don’t understand exactly why yet, infants who are fed infant formula have an increased risk of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which harms infants in Georgia every year. Georgia has the third highest infant mortality rate from NEC in the country.

We all know that access to human milk is critical for babies who are sick enough to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Milk from the baby’s own mother provides the very best nutrition for at-risk infants, and protects them from NEC. Pasteurized donor human milk (PDHM), available via human milk banks, is an option when mother’s own milk it’s not available. Milk banks associated with the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) follow established protocols for recruiting and screening milk donors and collecting, pooling, pasteurizing, and testing milk for safe distribution to neonatal intensive care units and even outpatients who are in need.