Donor milk needed: WakeMed event aims to find more breastfeeding women
Donor breast milk is in high demand, and WakeMed Cary Hospital on Friday will host a Milk Bank Donation Day to raise awareness.
Breast milk, which contains lifesaving antibodies, is the recommended source of nutrition for newborns -- especially preemies -- but not all babies have access to breast milk, and not all new mothers can breastfeed.
The WakeMed Milk Bank currently has an active donor base of 200 to 300 women but is always looking for more willing donors.
Friday's event will be held between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and is meant to raise awareness about donating milk. It isn't very difficult to become a donor, with a 10-minute phone screening, paperwork, physician approvals and blood tests.
"Many times women don’t realize they’d be a great donor, or they think it will be complicated. We want to donors to realize how much impact they can have. For a baby in the NICU, human milk donations become essential to life. Most breastfeeding women in good health can donate milk," according to WakeMed.
Friday's event at WakeMed Cary will feature kids crafts, blood pressure checks, yard games and a hot car demonstration. The goal is to collect 500,000 ml of milk, and the first 80 donors will get a T-shirt.
The WakeMed Milk Bank was able to dispense 278,627 ounces of donated breast milk to babies in hospital NICUs across North Carolina in 2022.
"Our donors have given so many families a chance to feed their babies breast milk when it otherwise might not be an option," organizers wrote.
