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Registered nurse Sarah Williams with Hillsboro Medical Center’s new milk drop freezer.
Hillsboro Medical Center has partnered with Northwest Mothers Milk Bank to open a milk drop site for breastfeeding mothers who wish to donate breastmilk to save the lives of infants in Oregon communities.
A milk drop is a convenient location where approved donors can drop off milk donations that are kept safely frozen prior to being transferred to Northwest Mothers Milk Bank.
As a not-for-profit milk bank, Northwest Mothers Milk Bank serves the Pacific Northwest region by pasteurizing and providing donor milk to premature and/or ill babies.
“Our neonatal intensive care unit has been fortunate to receive donated milk from Northwest Mothers Milk Bank,” explains Lindsey Kennedy, Nursing Director of Hillsboro Medical Center’s Women’s and Children’s Unit. “We are excited to now become a milk drop site to help support this great network that nourishes infants in need.”
As research mounts, more and more health systems with neonatal intensive care units use donor human milk for medical needs. According to Joanne Ransom, Clinical Director at Northwest Mothers Milk Bank, when the non-profit opened in 2013 it provided 140,000 ounces of milk in its first year. In 2021, that number had more than quadrupled to over 600,000 ounces.
By opening its own milk drop, Hillsboro Medical Center provides the opportunity for breastfeeding moms to help save a life.
“It [donated milk} ensures that babies are getting precious antibodies and the nutrients they need so that they can start life thriving,” notes Sarah Williams, a registered nurse at Hillsboro Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit who helped lead this initiative.
She was inspired to help create a milk drop at Hillsboro Medical Center after having a positive experience as an approved milk donor herself. She explains, “I wanted to share that special gift and limited resource with other families and babies to give them the best start to life and their futures.”
Screened donors are encouraged to arrange a milk drop-off at the Women’s and Children’s Center located on the second floor of at Hillsboro Medical Center’s 8th Avenue Medical Plaza (335 SE 8th Avenue).
To learn more about donating milk to Hillsboro Medical Center and apply to become an approved donor, visit Northwest Mothers Milk Bank at www.donatemilk.org.