Saint Barnabas Hospital Opens Milk Bank For Nursing Moms (VIDEO)

LIVINGSTON, NJ — A hospital in Livingston has partnered with a national nonprofit to launch its first human milk bank in New Jersey.

The newly launched program at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston allows nursing mothers who produce more milk than they need to donate the excess to other local babies. It’s the first foray into New Jersey for Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast, which now has 28 depots in nine states.

The bank will be a big boost for mothers unable to breastfeed or who need supplementation for their infants, hospital administrators said.

According to the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), one in nine babies in the U.S. is born premature. In 2018, HMBANA and its 27 human milk bank members distributed almost 6.5 million ounces of donor human milk to babies throughout the U.S. and Canada. Feeding human milk to a premature baby can reduce the newborn’s risk of contracting common illnesses, such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), by 75%.

“All babies benefit from human milk with rare exception, but for medically fragile or premature infants, breast milk is even more critical,” according to the director of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, Kamtorn Vangvanichyakorn.

Vangvanichyakorn said that Saint Barnabas has already been providing banked breast milk for its NICU babies for several years. But the new partnership will allow it to offer milk to babies in all of its nurseries.

The application process for potential donors is stringent. Modeled after blood donor screening, the process includes a health history, physician approval and a blood test. Milk from mothers who pass the screening is then pasteurized and tested by an independent lab to ensure safety before being dispensed to hospitals or families.

Mothers who wish to donate milk can review guidelines on the milk bank website, milkbankne.org/donate, then contact a donor intake coordinator for screening at 617-527-6263, ext. 3 or donate@milkbankne.org to get started.

Take a peek behind the scenes in the below video.

Don’t forget to visit the Patch Livingston Facebook page. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Send local news tips and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com