Mothers with excess milk are donating to babies in need

ARVADA, Colo. ( KDVR ) — Gov. Jared Polis proclaimed August as Colorado Breastfeeding Month . This comes as Mothers’ Milk Bank reached a donor milestone — it’s an organization that provides donated breast milk to neonatal intensive care units nationwide to help support premature and fragile babies.

Breast milk: Some call it liquid gold, but for infants in the NICU, it’s a lifeline.

“We are one of the largest banks in North America,” said ​​Rebecca Heinrich from Mother’s Milk Bank. “Their own mom may not be able to provide milk. Maybe they were born too premature, and the mom’s body isn’t ready yet. Maybe mom is on medications or had a traumatic birth experience and so she needs support in another way, and so donor milk allows us to bridge that gap.”

The process is similar to blood donation with a careful screening process.

“We ask a series of health questions about medications and health history. Additionally, we do an infectious disease screening to make sure that everything is OK, and we test for medications, we test for alcohol and drugs, we want to make sure that this is truly the safest milk possible,” said Heinrich.

FOX31’s Carly Moore got an inside look at the purification lab where milk from a handful of mothers is taken in and measured into four-ounce bottles, pasteurized through a process like sous vide, cooled down, labeled and off to the freezer.

“We use an older method called the holder method of pasteurization that eliminates all of the viruses, bacteria, fungus, anything in there that might not be safe for a very premature infant, but leaves some wonderful, great properties that are so special to human milk,” Heinrich said.

For one mom, this milk made all the difference.

“I would nurse her, I would pump, feed her what I pumped. But then, in addition to that, we actually used donor milk from Mother’s Milk Bank, and that was just like a godsend because it kind of made sure that we knew she was getting more than enough,” said Mayra Smith-Coronado.

Before little Isabella was born, doctors noticed a potential obstruction in her stomach, so her doctors warned Smith-Coronado that she might need surgery. Donated milk helped doctors make sure her stomach was working properly.

“That was probably the most amazing thing ever to having that help,” said Smith-Coronado.

A little later into motherhood, Smith-Coronado was able to give back by donating milk of her own.

“I was starting to feel a little overwhelmed with breast milk, and so I was like this might be an option for me to kind of help relieve that mental load of getting milk first in, first out, and keeping everything organized,” Smith-Coronado said.

Nourishing others in need is a process worth more than any precious metal.

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