A Puxico mother is helping other infants in need by donating breast milk to a new effort at Butler County Health Department.
The health department became a community-based donation and collection site March 1 for The Milk Bank, a non-profit that was founded in 2005 in Indiana to provide pasteurized human milk for premature or ill babies.
BCHD is now considered a Milk Depot, serving The Milk Bank. It can collect donations, which are then sent to The Milk Bank for pasteurization, to ensure they are safe for the babies who receive the donation. The Milk Bank then distributes the milk by prescription to premature or ill babies in need.
Jolissa Hale was the Butler County depot’s first approved donor and she has now donated over 1,000 ounces for babies in need.
Hale said she started with an oversupply of milk after giving birth to her son.
“My sister-in-law came over and saw that my freezer was packed full. Her daughter was a NICU baby and breast milk, they swear, saved her life,” said Hale, “so I wanted to be a part of that. It’s just in my heart to donate instead of selling, so the babies that need it most get it.”
Hale said because this was something near to her heart she would definitely take part again in the future if she decided to have more children. It was her hope that with more people taking part in the program in the future, The Milk Bank would be able to provide the freezer bags needed to store the milk, which currently is the responsibility of the donor.
Once milk donations are received at the depot sites, they are then safely packaged and shipped to the bank in Indiana where they will undergo the sterilization process.
Much like a blood bank, The Milk Bank screens, analyzes and pasteurizes human milk before it is made available to nursing babies, allowing new moms the opportunity to safely donate breast milk or receive fully pasteurized breast milk for infants in need.
“With the formula recalls and shortages, we see a lot of milk sharing, and that isn’t always safe,” said breastfeeding peer counselor Jentsy Philpot. “With this, donors go through a process where they have blood tests and the milk is analyzed and ran through the pasteurization process.”
There is no cost to be a donor, but there is a fee to receive the milk. A prescription can be given by a pediatrician, which may allow some of the cost to be covered by insurance. According to their website, The Milk Bank also offers Tre’s Medical Relief Fund, a sliding scale fund to assist parents with financial barriers.
WIC Coordinator Morgan Leach assists with the Milk Depot and said she feels strongly about the program and the benefits it brings to those in need of human breast milk. She added amongst the health benefits, human milk is also better tolerated digestively by infants.
“This is a really good cause,” said Hale. “And I had a representative from the Milk Bank reach out to me. She helped me through the process the whole way. She would just send me the lab papers and tell me where I could go. They took the lab work, it was completely free. I didn’t have to pay anything, it was really easy.”
Anyone interested in becoming a donor for the Milk Bank can begin the process online at www.themilkbank.org/donate-milk/ or can contact the Butler County Health Department for guidance through the steps.
Mothers or parents with infants in need of breast milk can request a prescription from a care provider or go online to www.themilkbank.org/request-milk-families/ to complete an intake form. The request to be a donor, as well as the request forms to receive milk can be completed online or printed and returned. Forms that are downloaded may be submitted to The Milk Bank via fax at 317-536-1676 or email Outpatient@themilkbank.org.