COLUMBUS, Ohio — “Human milk, always mom's milk first. Then in the absence of mom's own milk, then they do recommend donor milk,” said Mothers’ Milk Bank donor coordinator, Marla Wilson BSN, RN, CLC. 

That’s the goal of OhioHealth’s Mothers’ Milk Bank, which is one of 27 breast milk banks in North America. Wilson is in charge of the extensive health screening that mothers must go through before donating. 

What You Need To Know

  • OhioHealth's Mothers' Milk Bank is one of 27 milk banks in North America

  • Its goal is to help sick, premature babies and mothers who can't breast feed their children

  • Women who donate go through an extensive health screening and the donated milk is pasteurized to make sure it's safe to drink

“We typically approve anywhere from 45 or 50 to 60 donors per month. So and we ship out now from here, usually around 20,000 ounces. That's an average every two weeks. So last year, we distributed 465,000 ounces from here,” said Wilson. 

The bank’s goal is to give mothers who can’t breastfeed another way to provide breast milk to their kids. OhioHealth’s milk bank has 30 drop-off locations across the state. Once milk is donated, it then becomes pasteurized to make sure it’s safe to drink. 

“So as far as sharing this human milk, because it's pasteurized product, that makes it much safer and there is there has never been a report of a baby dying because of milk distributed from a HMBANA milk bank,” said Wilson. 

Rhonda Robinson considers herself lucky. She’s been able to breastfeed all three of her children and hasn’t needed to turn to the milk bank. But she’s well aware of the important role it can play for some.

“As long as I'm here to be able to breastfeed my child, I will breastfeed on demand how I do. But I do talk to my husband. We discuss if something ever happened to me. My son is only four months and I would want him to have breast milk,” said Robinson. 

And while numbers show the percentage of Black women who breastfeed has consistently been lower than the percentage of white women, Wilson said they’re starting to see an uptick in the number of black donors. 

“We are seeing more support through donation from black women. I think that as the word gets out that it is something that is improving. We know that there's disparities there,” said Wilson. 

Recipients of the breast milk don’t have to pay for the milk itself but do have to pay for distribution fees that vary. If you are interested in donating breast milk you can either call 614-566-0630 or email milkbank@ohiohealth.com.