The Human Milk Banking Association of North America guidelines state that all human milk donors should be screened according to national standards used for blood donors.
o To contact the milk donor program at Southwest Washington Medical Center, call 360-514-4027.
o The Northwest Mothers Milk Bank will hold a fundraising event at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 23 in Portland. Information is at http://www.nwmmb.org.
Eight-month-old Toivo Rittman is part of a new program that’s helping at-risk infants get off to a good start in life.
The son of Katie and Mark Rittman was born on Dec. 26, and his mother decided she would breast-feed him. About the same time, nurse Maggi Weisman was starting a milk-donation program at Southwest Washington Medical Center.
“Maggi mentioned starting a donor drop site. It’s a good cause,” Katie Rittman said.
Rittman became the first woman to donate to the state’s only drop-off site that’s affiliated with a donor milk bank.
Organizers plan to make it part of the first milk bank in the Pacific Northwest.
The Vancouver hospital currently is affiliated with a milk bank in San Jose, Calif., where Rittman’s contribution was shipped for processing and distribution.
Breast milk is particularly valuable when a baby is born prematurely, said Weisman, coordinator of the hospital’s lactation program. It’s easy to digest, supports the baby’s immune system and provides infection-fighting benefits.
“The first choice for milk is always the mother,” Weisman said. But when the mother can’t provide, donated milk is the next-best option.
“Infant formula doesn’t work for really fragile preemies; it’s not good for the intestinal tract,” Weisman said. “It changes the pH of the gut and can lead to an infection that is rare, but it costs hundreds of thousands of dollars (to treat) and can be fatal.”
Katie, who is a pilot for Horizon Air — as is husband Mark — said there is no problem keeping Toivo fed while producing extra milk to donate.
“I’m not well-endowed,” she said with a laugh, “but there’s no relationship there.”
Actually, it’s much easier than another form of donation she’s tried.
“I wanted to give blood,” Rittman said. “Five different people came and went” before she finally filled the one-unit container.
She stores the milk in the freezer at the Rittmans’ Washougal home until she has enough to take to the drop-off center. So far, she’s brought about 80 ounces to the hospital’s Family Birth Center.
Another woman has dropped off a donation, and six other women are going through screening, Weisman said.
The hospital recently wound up on the receiving end of the process, with its neonatal intensive care unit — NICU — ordering donor milk for two of its most fragile infants.
“We are purchasing it from San Jose, at $3 an ounce,” Weisman said.
A little can go a long way, however. One of the hospital’s NICU patients was getting about a teaspoon per feeding, Weisman said.
Shipping costs boost the price to about $5 an ounce. And that is one reason organizers are working on a regional facility.
“We are trying to start a donor milk bank in Portland so there is a processing facility in the area,” said Dixie Whetsell, a board member of the Northwest Mothers Milk Bank.
It would be only the 10th donor milk bank in the nation, and the effort is off to a good start, Whetsell said.
“Since October 2008, four drop-off sites in the Portland-Vancouver area have sent more than 32,000 ounces of milk,” Whetsell said. “There also are individual donors shipping from home; milk banks offer that option.
“We have high breast-feeding rates in the Northwest, and more women would become donors if we had the convenience of a milk bank here. It also increases awareness,” Whetsell said.
It will cost about $350,000 to fund the first year of operation. Start-up costs include pasteurization equipment and freezers.
“Once we have a processing facility, we will have more milk than many milk banks started with,” she said. “Some started with 10,000 ounces” a year.
“We’ll probably invest in pasteurization equipment that handles larger volumes, and a few more freezers. We want to be prepared,” Whetsell said.
Any boost in the nation’s supply will be welcome.
“Last year, milk banks processed about 1.4 million ounces,” Whetsell said. “The estimated need for donor milk is about 8.9 million ounces.”
