Getting Milk for Your Baby

If your baby or babies came too early, or have had a difficult birth or illness, it may be difficult for you to provide enough milk for his or her growing appetite. Fortunately, women can share their gift of milk with others. We are glad that you are considering using banked milk for the milk you cannot supply for your precious baby.

New parents sometimes feel uncomfortable giving their babies milk from another mother. However, mothers have been sharing milk throughout history, through wet nursing and cross nursing. While your own milk is best for your baby, another mother's milk is the second best option. Human milk has the optimal balance of nutrients, immunologic and growth factors for human babies. Formula, which is based on milk from a cow or a soybean, cannot provide this balanced nutrition for your baby.

In order to ensure the safety of donor milk, each donor mother fills out a detailed health history, confirmed by her physician, and has a blood test to assure that she is not carrying any diseases that pass through breast milk. Please feel free to read our donor information to learn about the process of donation. Donor milk is tested and pasteurized with heat so that any bacteria are eliminated and the majority of nutritional and immunologic components are maintained.

In forty years of modern milk banking, there has never been a case of a baby becoming sick from using donor milk through a HMBANA milk bank.

If you have further questions, please contact your baby's neonatologist or pediatrician or email us. If you wish to order milk, please read information on ordering.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Mothers' Milk Bank of New England
PO Box 60-0091 Newtonville, MA 02460
Office phone: 617-527-6263
Fax: 617-527-1005