| "Where it is not possible for the biological mother to breastfeed, the first alternative, if available, should be the use of human breast milk from other sources. Human milk banks should be made available in appropriate situations."
World Health Organization/United Nations Children's Fund |
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1: Mom has excess milk
The first and most important thing is to make sure that breast feeding your infant is established before you decide to donate any excess milk. We only want your excess breast milk after your baby is fully fed. You can donate excess newly expressed milk or previously collected frozen milk up to 10 months from date of expression as long as it is clearly marked with the time, month, day and year of expression. You can expect the entire donation qualification process to take about 6 weeks. You will receive step-by-step information as you progress through the qualification process so you know exactly where you are in the process and what to expect next.
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2: Online application and review
In order to be eligible to donate your extra breast milk, you must first complete an online application. The application includes a Consent (to donate) Agreement and a medical history survey with about 50 questions similar to questions you answer prior to donating blood. It will take about 20 minutes. Once your application is processed, you will receive an email from International Breast Milk Project with detailed information on next steps. You can expect to hear back within 2 weeks of submitting your application.
 Online Application
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3: Medical confirmation forms
The milk you donate will be used in two ways. The milk that goes to South Africa will help orphaned, premature, sick or hungry babies in orphan homes and hospitals. The milk that stays in the U.S. with Prolacta will be used to create nutritional therapies for critically-ill premature infants. To ensure the quality of the product, we require that the donor has her medical provider and her infant's pediatrician sign a confirmation form ensuring that both mother and baby are healthy and it is okay for mother to donate her excess milk.
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4: Donor testing
We will arrange for a screening blood test by a national laboratory at no charge to you. At the same time, you will be asked to provide a cheek swab to create a DNA identity profile. Later, when you ship in your donation, the DNA in the milk will be matched to your DNA identity profile to ensure we only receive milk from donors that have been screened. This is a critical step to ensure the safety of the milk.
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5: Delivery of donation
Once you are qualified, you will receive notification with detailed instructions on how to pack and deliver the milk to the International Breast Milk Project’s processing partner. At this time International Breast Milk Project will provide you with breast milk storage bags including milk collection and storage instructions.
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How the IBMP-Prolacta Partnership Works:
Prolacta will process 25 percent of the first 400,000 ounces of donated breast milk for infants in South Africa and other countries in need where infants have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS, or who are suffering from HIV/AIDS, malnourishment, poverty, and disease. The remaining 75 percent will remain in the United States to be used to make a human-milk-derived Human Milk Fortifier for critically ill and premature infants in neonatal intensive care units. Should the breast milk donations exceed 400,000 ounces, 10 percent will be processed for shipment internationally, and the remaining 90 percent will stay in the United States. Additionally, Prolacta will donate one dollar to IBMP for every ounce of milk that remains in the U.S.
This partnership of a non-profit with a for-profit organization provides a model that creates sustainability for urgently needed donor milk and funding for longer-term solutions. It also helps moms provide milk for both infants in Africa and the U.S., a win-win situation. Every drop is making a difference. |
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