BY: CATHERINE GARVENS AND WORT NEWS DEPARTMENT
The recent baby formula shortage has renewed interest in a more natural alternative for infants who must depend on formula – human breast milk provided by donors.
WORT reporter Catherine Garvens spoke with Summer Kelly, Executive Director of Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes. The nonprofit organization serves over 75 hospitals and thousands of families in Wisconsin and Illinois, collecting and pasteurizing donor human milk to premature babies and pediatric patients.
Garvens and Kelly discuss milk banking, and the safety precautions needed to ensure a consistently high-quality product. They also discuss how mothers can donate their milk, and how families in need can access this service.
Although the Elk Grove Village bank is mainly focused on helping the most fragile babies in Illinois and Wisconsin hospitals, their Charity Care program helps families in need at more than a dozen dispensaries across the state.
