Community Corner

All Saints to Offer Donated Breast Milk

Racine hospital has partnered with a Midwest organization that helps supply donated breast milk to premature and critically ill infants whose mothers are not able to provide milke to them.

Breast milk is the best way to feed a baby, particularly one born too early or with health problems. But mothers are not always able to make enough milk for their babies. 

Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-All Saints hospital, 3801 Spring St., is partnering with a milk bank out of Indiana to bring donated milk here to help babies who need it. Racine has one of the highest prematurity rates in Wisconsin, according to information from the March of Dimes, with a prematurity rate of 11 percent or greater of live births. 

In a story from The Journal Times, Karen Strube, the nurse in charge of the donated milk program at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-All Saints, said the local program could be up and running in early 2013

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A donated milk program at the hospital would mean mothers of tiny or ill babies would have an option oustide of buying milk directly from a woman who pumps it. Places like Only the Breast have online classifieds where people can sell and buy breast milk.

Breast milk donation programs exist, but there are not currently any in Wisconsin. So the hospital is partnering with Mothers Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes, the Journal Times reported. The organization has specific requirements and guidelines for mothers who want to donate milk: Wisconsin requirements available here.

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Women who wish to donate to the local hospital, can ship it to Mothers Milk Bank, which will then send milk back to Racine. Strube hopes there will eventually be a local spot to donate milk, according to the article.


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