Myrtue’s Birthing Center Becomes Milk Collection Depot #39
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On Thursday, May 27, 2021, Myrtue Medical’s Birthing Center officially opened the 39th Milk Collection Depot. This Milk Collection Depot works with the Mother’s Milk Bank of Iowa, an organization whose mission is to “improve the health of infants across the United States by providing pasteurized donor human milk to families and hospitals.”
“We are very excited to partner with the Mother’s Milk Bank of Iowa to become a breast milk depot,” states Birthing Center Director, Michele Monson, RNC-OB. “The Mother’s Milk Bank of Iowa has wanted a depot in southwest Iowa and we look forward to providing this service to our community.”
Opening this depot will make it easier for milk donors in the area to drop off their supply and for it then to be transferred in a timely manner to the Mother’s Milk Bank of Iowa home location in Coralville, Iowa.
More than two decades of research have established that human milk is the perfect food for infants. It protects them from illness – infants on human milk have lower hospital admission rates, fewer ear infections, rashes, and allergies, as well as less diarrhea. Human milk is even more important for premature infants. Human milk contains many ingredients not found in formula. It is full of immune system boosters and infection-fighting factors, and contains unique proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and enzymes necessary for tiny infants to survive.
Donor human milk is available for premature and term infants. Indications for its use include:
- Hospitalized premature infants
- Infants born with immunological defects
- Insufficient milk supply
- Adopted infants
- Mother illness requiring brief cessation of breast feeding
All milk donor volunteers are screened thoroughly and carefully. Milk donors are screened for health behaviors and communicable diseases, including HIV, HTLV, Hepatitis B and C, and syphilis. All screenings are done through the Milk Bank at no cost to the donor. Each donor’s primary care physician is asked to certify that the donor is in good health and is an appropriate candidate to donate milk.
To be a milk donor, you must be in good health and be willing to pump and store milk according to milk bank standards as well as donate a minimum of 200 ounces of milk. Donors are also:
- Non-smoking
- Not taking medication (with a few exceptions)
- Should not consume alcohol 12 hours before pumping milk to donate
- Are not taking herbal supplements, including herbs in multivitamin (multivitamin is not an exclusion)
To become a human milk donor, please contact Heidi Baudhuin at 319.384.9930 or baudhuin@healthcare.uiowa.edu
To order donor human milk or for more information about the Mother’s Milk Bank of Iowa:
