2016 Community Benefit Report CHAI_160088756_2016 Community Benefit Report_FIN - | Page 18

2016 COMMUNITY BENEFIT REPORT
An Indescribable Feeling
Donated Human Milk Saves Precious Lives
Adele Tafoya-Ecker had an oversupply of her milk after having her
daughter. When she looked around online and found that there were
opportunities to donate her own milk, she jumped at the chance.
Months later, she’s donated over 11,509 ounces of milk to babies who
may not have access to healthy human milk.
A Colorado-based nonprofit program part of
Rocky Mountain Children’s Health Foundation,
Mothers' Milk Bank (MMB), collects, processes,
tests and provides donor human milk to babies
across the country. Babies who receive the milk
may be premature or have severe illnesses and
need human milk to thrive.
“I came across the Mothers’ Milk Bank online
and fell in love with the idea,” says Adele. MMB
dispenses more than 760,000 ounces of milk
to babies in more than 26 states on an annual
basis, and approximately 85 percent of MMB’s
donated human milk goes to hospitals for
preterm and sick babies.
Laraine Lockhart Borman, director of outreach
for MMB, says donating to and receiving milk
from a nonprofit milk bank guarantees that the
milk will be safe, unaltered and provided to the
babies who need it most.
To achieve this mission, MMB has a network of
several donation sites across multiple states
18
where experts collect milk from donors. A
longstanding partner of MMB, Children’s
Hospital Colorado opened its Donation and
Outreach Center in April 2016.
“Our Milk Lab became a drop-off location for
women in the community to conveniently
deliver their donated milk,” says Tena Kascht,
lactation program manager at Children’s
Colorado. “Many moms of hospitalized infants
here have extra milk and choose to donate.”
“Having a Donation Center at Children’s
Colorado is a benefit to people living in the
community, especially moms who have extra
milk and know they can save a life with their
gift,” says Laraine.
For Adele, it did just that. “Knowing my
donations have helped parents give human milk
to their babies who otherwise wouldn’t have
been able to is an indescribable feeling. It makes
me happy that I was able to help such precious
lives in need.”
Since opening in April
2016, the Donation
and Outreach Center
logged
28
community drop-offs,
and sent over
43,000
oz
of human milk.
One
of 72
donation centers
across the U.S