27 Apr Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank celebrates a decade of healthier babies and a new home in Bellevue
Kidsburgh ( April 27, 2026) – The Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank is marking its 10th birthday with a community celebration at its future home in Bellevue on May 2. (You’re invited: Here are the details.) Amid all the live music, face painting and birthday cake, and the groundbreaking on their expanded workspace, the Milk Bank team will be celebrating some incredible milestones for the Pittsburgh community.
“In the past 10 years, we’ve converted every single Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in western Pennsylvania to using donor milk,” says Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank executive director Denise O’Connor. In the process, the rates of life-threatening complications that can happen to preterm infants in the NICU have plummeted.
“There are many, many babies here in our region that are alive today only because of donor milk. They did not have to suffer complications. They were able to have the best outcomes possible,” O’Connor says. “We are seeing the feeding tolerance go up, seeing the complications go down. It’s just been absolutely amazing.”
Over the past decade, local hospitals have increased their use of donor milk to include a larger number of babies, including those who have GI issues and cardiac issues. Many hospital systems have even begun using donor milk for some well babies when a mother’s milk hasn’t come in yet, O’Connor says.
“UPMC, for example, has been using it for their well-baby units, and because we know that the exposure to human milk in those first days of life will help form a more diverse and better microbiome. So it’s extraordinarily important,” she says.
“If a mom has a baby that just needs a few sips of supplement in the hospital before they’re discharged, and she doesn’t have her milk coming in yet,” O’Connor says, the data shows that if the baby is given donor milk instead of formula, “when we look at those moms weeks and months out, they’re more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding their babies. And that is something that will change the health trajectory of that mom and her baby for decades to come.”
The Milk Bank is always excited “to hear from families who have been touched by donor milk,” she says. “We’d love to hear about those babies that have received donor milk as little, teeny, tiny preterm babies, and now they’re in first grade.” (You can share your story right here, if your baby was helped by donor milk. The Milk Bank doesn’t know which babies the hospitals give donor milk to — they only know that they help thousands of babies each year. So they’re always delighted to hear from families.)
The Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank also has begun offering donor milk to Pittsburgh-region babies beyond hospitals. Outpatient babies who have a need for donor milk can receive it at the Milk Bank or it can be shipped to them overnight. They just need a prescription. Only about half of the milk banks in the U.S. provide this service.
“Oftentimes, if there’s a medical need for donor milk, it will be covered by insurance. And we’re lucky here in the state of Pennsylvania: One of the things that we advocated for and were able to champion and get passed is Owen’s Law, which went into effect in January of 2024,” O’Connor says. “It mandates the coverage of donor milk for babies that have certain medical circumstances.”
O’Connor points out that none of these saved lives and improved outcomes would be possible without so many caring donors. “Our donors are all unpaid volunteers, very similar to a blood bank,” she says.
Thinking of donating? You can get all the details here.
“There are some pre-screening questions on there, and then it’ll allow you to set up the phone interview with one of our screeners. It also gives lots of information about the whole entire process of screening,” O’Connor says. “It’s a thorough process to make donor milk safe, but we try to make it as easy as possible. A lot of our donors say that it was a very easy process and very rewarding.”