20 Mar Impact on milk banks due to spread of coronavirus
WTAE (March 20, 2020) – There is now concern that donations to the Mother’s Milk Bank in Pittsburgh will start to dip due to the spread of the coronavirus.
The director of the Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank is asking nursing mothers to consider donating breast milk for babies who need it.
“There’s a continuous need in our neonatal intensive care units for donor milk, for babies that are premature or those who are born with certain medical conditions. If they don’t have mamma’s own milk, donor milk can be lifesaving. What we know is that the need is going to be constant even though we are seeing a little bit of a dip in inquiries about donations, everyone is really preoccupied with what’s going on but we need to make sure we have those donations coming and we have moms screened,” said Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank Executive Director Denise O’Connor.
Other parts of the country are seeing a slight shortage of human breast milk donations for babies in intensive care. Workers at the Pittsburgh Milk Bank pasteurize the donations that come in and send them out to hospitals all over Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey and Maryland.
If you are a healthy nursing mom with milk to share visit https://midatlanticmilkbank.org/ and get screened to find out if you can donate breast milk.