WTAJ – (Aug 1, 2025) August is National Breastfeeding Month and, this year, UPMC Altoona is celebrating the success of its breast milk donor depot.

It has been open less than two years but has already surpassed expectations.

For thousands of women across the United States, being unable to provide enough breast milk for their growing babies can send their typical new-parent anxiety skyrocketing.

“Being a mom, you have a lot on your shoulders,” said Danielle Tinsley, a mom-of-two and donor at UPMC Altoona’s milk donor depot. “You’re anxious about everything.”

The exact rate of women who are unable to produce enough breast milk for their babies is unknown, but researchers published in the National Library of Medicine estimate about 35% of women wean their babies early due to perceived insufficient milk supply. That’s where moms like Tinsley step in by donating their extra breast milk to the Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank through UPMC Altoona’s donor depot.

“I donated my milk from my son — having extra milk at home, didn’t know really what to do with it, didn’t want it to go to waste. So I donated then. And then I had my daughter, still kind of had the same situation happen, and I decided that I wanted to donate my milk again,” Tinsley said.

Tinsley was the first to donate to the donor depot when it opened in 2023. But she has a deeper connection with it because she also works as a registered nurse on the hospital’s labor and delivery unit.

UPMC Altoona uses milk it gets back from the bank as a supplement for breastfeeding babies that need it.

“I get emails from them saying, ‘Oh, your milk is helping all these babies.’ And it’s like they can’t extensively say where my milk has been sent, but it’s nice to know that there is a possibility that the milk here that we’re giving babies has some of my milk in it,” Tinsley said.

So far this year, 165 babies born at UPMC Altoona have benefited from the program, and hundreds more throughout the region have been helped over the past two years.

“The first year of operation, we were able to ship off over 7,700 ounces of human milk to the milk bank, where they test it, pasteurize it and process it and send it to hospitals all over Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia. So it really has a broad reach. This year, since the start of 2025, we’ve shipped out 1,300 ounces,” said Alison Keating, a postpartum nurse and lactation consultant at UPMC Altoona.

Keating said breastfeeding has many health benefits for moms, including protecting them from different types of cancer and osteoporosis and improving cardiovascular health. It also helps moms fight postpartum depression and anxiety.

But using donated milk also helps reduce the anxiety many new moms face.

“There are some really good articles that having donor milk available to supplement parents because that does meet their goal for exclusive human milk feeding, that it does support their mental health and well-being,” Keating said.

Donated milk is pasteurized, but Keating said that doesn’t decrease the health benefits it provides to babies.

“It’s one of the reasons why it’s so important and why we really love to use pasteurized donor human milk for our breastfeeding babies,” Keating said. So it’s human milk. So it doesn’t predispose infants to any kind of allergies.”

Mothers interested in donating their extra breast milk to the Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank can get started by filling out a screening process on their website.

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