What We Do
Your valuable breast milk donation will be used by Prolacta Bioscience, a for-profit company, to make human milk fortifier, standardized human milk and other human milk nutritional products. These 100% human milk products are sold to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across the United States for critically ill premature babies. While a mother’s breast milk can provide for a large percentage of her premature baby’s needs, premature infants need more protein and calories than are naturally occurring in mother’s milk.
Through consumption of concentrated human milk protein, in the form of a human milk fortifier from 100% human milk by Prolacta Bioscience, critically ill preemies are able to get the nutrition they need to grow while being fed exclusively human milk. Also, when mother’s own milk is not available in the NICU, pasteurized human milk is made from your donation and can be used to ensure a 100% human milk diet in the NICU. This milk provides standardized nutrition when a mom’s own milk is not available and contains a minimum of 20 calories/fluid ounce. Donor milk and mom’s own milk can vary widely, so standardized nutrition makes it easier for the healthcare professional to provide beneficial nutrition to the baby.
The 2012 policy on human milk and breastfeeding issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics states that they recommend the use of human milk for all preterm infants, whether mother’s milk or pasteurized donor milk, when mother’s milk is unavailable.