This is why government funding for Breastfeeding Awareness week is so vital, this milk donor scheme would not be happening if BFAW didn’t exist.
The Wirral Mothers’ Milk Bank, based at Clatterbridge Hospital, is celebrating yet another happy event after recruiting its 500th donor.
Launched seven years ago, the Milk Bank houses special equipment to test, pasteurise and store donor breast milk, which is then used to treat sick and premature babies across the north west.
This fifth century of donors was reached after Jan Howard from Wavertree in Liverpool found out about the work of milk banks at a breastfeeding event during Breastfeeding Awareness Week in 2010 when her son, Rowan, was a few months old.
Jan recalled: “I picked up a leaflet with a picture of a premature baby on it which made me really emotional having only recently given birth to Rowan. I ‘phoned the number on the leaflet – and the rest is history!”
Jan has now donated nearly 20 litres of breast milk to the Milk Bank. In recognition of this and her position as 500th donor, Jan was presented with a gift and flowers by Annie Atkinson, Infant Feeding Specialist and Milk Bank Manager at Wirral, during a visit to Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where Jan gave birth to Rowan a year ago.
Wirral Mothers’ Milk Bank is part of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Arrowe Park and Clatterbridge Hospitals. Since it opened in 2004, more than 3,000 litres of human milk have been donated by 500 mothers living in Wirral and other parts of the region.
As one of only two milk banks in the region, pasteurised milk from the Wirral Mothers’ Milk Bank is transported to other baby units across the north west, including Liverpool Women’s Hospital. The Neonatal Unit there treats the region’s sickest and smallest babies.
Jan commented: “It has always been so easy working with the Milk Bank. As with other mums, I express the milk in the comfort of my own home, freeze the milk and then arrange for it to be collected by milk bank volunteers once a fortnight.
“I’m so pleased to have been able to play some part in supporting other mums who are unable to breastfeed with the development of their babies”.
Annie Atkinson said: “A mother’s milk can be vital to newborn babies because it contains nutrients to help them to develop properly. Each year, more than 300 babies are born at Wirral Women and Children’s Hospital at Arrowe Park who are unable to take milk from their mums because they are born prematurely or are ill.
“This can be a highly stressful and anxious time for some mothers which can adversely affect their milk supply and pasteurised milk from the Milk Bank ensures the baby receives human milk only. Natural milk is the perfect solution and mothers can feel reassured that their babies are still receiving the best start in life.”
Pasteurised donor breast milk is always available in stock at Wirral Mothers’ Milk Bank. Hospitals needing milk should ring 0151 482 7599 to request their order.
by Michelle Harding. Published Sat 23 Apr 2011 11:20, Last updated: 2011-04-21
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