B.C. breast milk bank in need of donors to boost supplies for vulnerable newborns
A breast milk bank at B.C. Women’s Hospital which provides donated milk to neonatal intensive care units around the province is running low on supplies and is putting out a plea for more donors.
The provincial milk bank’s program coordinator Frances Jones said they currently have just under a month’s supply.
“We like to have two to three months in our freezer for our raw milk, so that we can always be ahead and not be concerned that we’ll run out,” she said. “The population that is most in need is premature infants, and often for the mothers of those babies, getting their milk supply started is a challenge.”
Jones said they’ve had a number of donors “retire,” and are hoping more will step forward to help.
“We supply all 14 of the neonatal intensive care units in the province and of course, those are the most fragile patients in the province,” Jones said. “We never quite know week to week how much milk will be ordered.”
'I FEEL VERY, VERY THANKFUL FOR THE PROGRAM'
Cindy Li’s baby Ethan was helped by donor milk after being born early at the end of May.
“That I was able to access the donor's milk for my baby is a huge peace of mind, and it’s a huge help at that stage as a new parent. With an unexpected early delivery, with a premature baby, you know there is a lot to process at that point,” she said. “I feel very, very thankful for the program.”
Li said at about 32 weeks pregnant, she woke up one morning to discover she was bleeding. She ended up delivering her son just before about a week later.
“I was totally not expecting that, because throughout my entire pregnancy everything was very smooth,” she said. “He is fine, which I’m so, so glad about.”
Li said her little boy spent a month in the neonatal intensive care unit before going home. He is now almost five months old, and Li said he is sleeping and eating well.
“He is very adorable. He smiles at everybody. Anyone can hold him and he’s happy,” she said. “We’re just really happy to experience life again with the little one through his eyes and placing ourselves in his shoes, and to just kind of explore the world again.”
Li has also become a milk bank donor herself.
“I thought my baby once benefitted from donors milk, I would love to become one of the donors,” she said. “I am very happy to do that…donating it is very easy, so I think this is great.”
HOW TO DONATE
Anyone who is interested in donating breast milk to the bank can find out more on the hospital’s website.
Donors first go through a screening process. Frozen milk donations from approved donors can be dropped off at local depots, which are found in various health regions around the province. The milk is then screened, bottled and pasteurized, and then frozen again before distribution. The milk is shipped out to NICU’s and sometimes maternity units throughout British Columbia.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.