Appeal for more breast milk donors after surge in demand to help premature babies

• Hospitals are requesting more donor milk from the Human Milk Foundation, as Emily Knight reports for ITV News Anglia.

A breast milk charity is calling for more donors after seeing demand for its services double following new medical guidance for hospitals looking after premature babies.

Earlier this year the British Association of Perinatal Medicine recommended the use of donor breast milk for premature babies in intensive care.

It has led to more hospitals requesting donor milk from the Hearts Milk Bank, set up by the Human Milk Foundation (HMF) based in Hertfordshire.

The charity now supplies donated breast milk to 53 Neonatal Intensive Care Units ( NICUs) around the UK.

Donor milk has helped families including Bethany Rex, 36, and Daniel Hooton, 34, from Norwich who welcomed their second child Frances at 26 weeks, weighing just 785g.

In the first few days after Frances’ birth, her parents asked the hospital if they had donor breast milk they could give to their daughter while they waited for Bethany’s milk to come in.

“It was a lifeline, a godsend for us,” Mr Hooton said.

"For her (Frances) it has really assured her health and immunity which is a really big part of what they get in their final trimester of pregnancy and she didn’t get that, the donor milk was really important for her.”

Frances is now seven months old and doing well.

Ms Rex said: “I think it’s amazing that mums do that and it has a massive impact on people like us who for various reasons may need that milk at different periods during their feeding journeys, so we’re super grateful to anyone who donates.”

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn offered donor milk to parents including Chloe Barker, 27, from Wisbech. Her daughter Nova was born at 32 weeks.

Ms Barker said: “The first couple of days that she was here, obviously my milk wasn’t in because she was so early, so we opted to have the donor breast milk instead of the formula.”

Joanne Carter, a neonatal nursery nurse at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said: “When mums are not able to express their own breast milk, then using donor breast milk allows them to be able to provide their baby with the protective factors breast milk can give to premature babies and allow mum time without the stress and worry that she’s not managing to provide for her baby.”

The Human Milk Foundation is now appealing for more donors to come forward and says it needs to "significantly" increase its stocks to cope with rising demand.

Bryony Liddon, 34, from Sprowston, is a milk donor and is currently breast feeding her second child, seven-month -old Stanley.

She said: “I know how hard it is to get breastfeeding going and can only imagine how hard it is when they are in the NICU as well if they are premature.

“If, when I was struggling with my daughter, I could have had the option of donor milk just to give me that breathing room to get things started... I know how much of a difference it would have made to me. To give it to someone else really means a lot.”

Nisari John, 38, from King’s Lynn is considering becoming a donor following the birth of her third child, Emmanuel, who was born at 25 weeks weighing 764g. 

She said: “I have met other mums in hospital who didn’t have milk and they felt quite down about that and they wanted to use the donor milk. So if there is an option I would like to donate the milk.”

The charity Norfolk Blood Bikes works with the HMF, collecting the milk from donors and delivering it to a network of milk hubs, one of which is at Hellesdon Hospital in Norwich.

A new pilot project in Norfolk, thought to be the first in the UK, is working to offer donor milk to women at home to improve breastfeeding rates.

Lucy Lowe, a lactation consultant at HMF, said: “We’re also working with a small cohort of families linked to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital who have diabetes in pregnancy.

"Those families can sometimes struggle with establishing breastfeeding despite their best efforts and we are able to support some of those families where it is relevant or appropriate with some additional milk in the form of donor human milk.”

The charity is appealing for current breastfeeding mums who think they have surplus milk to become milk donors as part of a large recruitment drive. 

To find out more about being a breast milk donor, visit the Human Milk Foundation.

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