Human milk donation center opens at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs
Children’s Hospital Colorado in Colorado Springs opened a new human milk donation center Tuesday.
The hospital will be joining the network of Mothers’ Milk Bank, which is based out of Colorado. It is the largest non-profit milk bank in the world, according to its website.
Children’s Hospital Colorado has been a recipient of the Mothers’ Milk Bank for nearly 30 years, but by becoming a donation and outreach center, it hopes to give women the opportunity to donate to an organization that may have cared for their own babies in the past.
The program serves 120 different Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) across the country.
Donating human milk is considered especially important for babies in the NICU, Children’s Hospital Colorado said in a news release.
“Donated human milk is an essential resource for micro-preemie babies, who are born months before their due date, and babies who have challenges with drug exposure in utero, special dietary needs, dehydration, undeveloped immune systems, and/or abdominal and gastrointestinal defects.”
Human milk carries special nutrients helpful to growth and development, that can not be found among any other kind of milk, said Tina Means, senior milk lab technician.
Laraine Lockhart Borman, director of outreach at Mothers’ Milk Bank added that one ounce of human milk “can feed a micro-preemie in the NICU for a full day.”
If you would like to be a donor or volunteer, you can find more information and eligibility requirements here.
Kelly Stevenson holds her twins Joshua, left, and Caleb, right, in their hospital room in the neonatal intensive care unit at the new Children’s Hospital on Wednesday, June 26. The twins were two of the first patients to be moved from the UCHealth Memorial Central hospital to the new Children’s on Tuesday, May 28. The pair were born prematurely on March 20, at 28 weeks weighing just a few ounces more than two pounds. They spent 70 days in separate rooms within the NICU at UCHealth Memorial Central until they were moved to a room designed for twins at Children’s.
A Children’s Hospital helicopter flies over the new Children’s Hospital in Colorado Springs.