BC Women’s Hospital is putting out an urgent appeal for mothers to donate their breast milk in order to help the most vulnerable babies in its intensive care unit.

The hospital’s Milk Bank, which relies on donations, provides pasteurized breast milk to children in need at its Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Almost all recipients are high risk and ill children whose mothers are unable to breastfeed or provide enough breast milk to feed their children.

The program is set to expand to other intensive care units across B.C., including Surrey Memorial, Royal Columbian and Victoria General hospitals, but there are concerns demand could soon exceed supply.

“We're running low on the amount of milk we have processed and available to the NICU babies,” said program coordinator Frances Jones.

With summer now here, the bank is already seeing a decline in donations and shelves are almost bare.

“The hard part is when we don't have the milk. And we get calls from hospitals asking for milk and we can’t send it,” said Jones.

The hospital is now reaching out to women in an effort to help find healthy moms able to join the 162 donors who gave last year.

All donors are screened, and all donated milk is pasteurized. Donors have to fill out paperwork and get bloodwork done, and then the milk is dropped off at several different depots around town. Thirteen depots have recently been opened in the Fraser Health region.

“Once the screening is complete and everything is fine we take any milk they have,” Jones said.

New mom Miranda Mezzatesta turned to using donated breast milk from the bank because her baby was so premature her body wasn’t able to produce milk. Grayson weighed just over a pound when he was born at 27 weeks.

“Words can’t even express how amazing it was to have access to this donor milk,” Mezzatesta said. She relied on breast milk donations for a week until she started breastfeeding on her own.

"Thanks to those moms who donated their breast milk he's got a better chance now,” she said.

To find out how you can help visit www.bcwomensmilkbank.ca