Here & Now

Demand Rising for Donated Human Milk

Zac Schultz:

The national baby formula shortage has brought a lot of attention to what other options remain when there’s no formula on the shelf. One of the groups benefiting from this new awareness are milk banks. And joining us now is Susan Urbanski, program manager of Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes, which serves Wisconsin and Illinois. Thanks for your time.

Susan Urbanski:

Thanks for having me.

Zac Schultz:

So does a milk bank work in a similar fashion to a blood bank?

Susan Urbanski:

Yes. We’re a non-profit organization. So as a milk bank, we collect donor milk from moms who have plenty to spare. And we bring it here to our facility in Elk Grove Village. We test it. We pasteurize it and then we distribute it to patients in need. Most of the milk actually goes to hospitals throughout Illinois and Wisconsin for babies in the neo-natal intensive care unit or mother-baby unit. But when we have enough milk and right now, thankfully we do, we’re able also to provide milk for patients at home.

Zac Schultz:

So who are you serving at home? Outside of the hospital in these circumstances, just anyone who’s aware and can come and grab it or do you have a criteria for who gets first dibs at this?

Susan Urbanski:

We do have a prioritization criteria. So we make sure the most medically complex babies have access to the milk first. We have a step-down system from there so that hopefully all babies have access. And right now, thankfully we’re actually able to provide milk for patients at home including healthy babies. So that’s fantastic. But primarily, when we’re working with outpatients, we like to focus on the babies who have those complex medical needs, such as babies who might otherwise need a specialty formula that they can’t currently find.

Zac Schultz:

In the past couple months, there’s been a lot more attention brought to why some women are not able to breast-feed their babies. How important is it for more people to be aware of all the issues and complications surrounding breast feeding?

Susan Urbanski:

There’s plenty of reasons why moms might not be able to provide their own milk. Very often it’s a lack of support. One of the things we do as a non-profit organization is try to support moms to meet their own goals. And that includes connecting them with local lactation resources. But for so many reasons, sometimes that’s just not an option. There’s moms who are taking medications that are contraindicated. There’s families that have no mother that is involved. And then there’s also situations such as adoption and surrogacy or maternal cancer. There’s many, many reasons why human milk may not be available in the immediate family. So we like to come in and help in those situations.

Zac Schultz:

Ive seen you describe there’s both happy and sad reasons for why some women are able or willing to donate milk. Can you walk us through those?

Susan Urbanski:

Yes. So some of the happy reasons that moms are able to donate milk is because they just have plenty. They have lots and lots of milk and they want to pay it forward and share with other families in need. But sitting right hind me, these beautiful stars right here are all hand painted with the names and dates of birth of babies who are honored on our Poppy’s Dream Bereavement Milk Donation Memorial wall. So these are all families who have chosen to donate milk in honor of a baby who has died. So each one of those stars is very special to us and I know a lot of those families personally. And those moms are absolute heroes for being able to offer their milk in a time when they’re hurting. So we’re really grateful for all of our donors, whether it’s happy circumstances or sad circumstances. We’re just grateful for everybody.

Zac Schultz:

You’ve said you’ve seen — you have a surplus right now. Is that due to an increase in both supply and demand? Are you seeing more people come in and be aware of this?

Susan Urbanski:

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a surplus just yet but thankfully, yes. We have seen an increase in demand and supply. So while we have more patients that are currently looking for milk, we have more donor mothers who have answered the call and who are coming forward to be able to provide that milk to families in need.

Zac Schultz:

In terms of what people need to do to donate, what is that process look like?

Susan Urbanski:

That’s great question. We like to try to make the donor application process as simple as possible. Everything is digital. First step is to go to our website. It’s www.milkbankwgl.org and fill out our donor interest form. From there, we’ll give a donor mom a call. She will go through a pre-screening process. We’ll send a written application that can all be completed online. We reach out to each mom’s medical provider for clearance and we also send each mom for a blood draw to make sure that there are no sexually transmitted infections. Once all of that’s done, we have a nurse review the application. And then we can approve that mom as a donor. We also keep in touch with our donors throughout the course of their donation so we know everything is staying safe for as long as they’re donating milk.

Zac Schultz:

How hopeful are you that this attention will increase for the long-term here?

Susan Urbanski:

Im actually really excited because until now, everybody knew what a blood bank was. You mentioned blood banks earlier in the conversation but nobody had ever heard of a milk bank and that was one of our biggest hurdles, was just general awareness. And now people are starting to understand that milk banking is a thing. So I hope that that awareness remains constant and going forward everyone remembers this is an option. Once the shelfs are full again, I don’t want people to forget about the option of milk donation.

Zac Schultz:

Susan Urbanski, thanks for your time today.

Susan Urbanski:

Sure, thanks so much.