Breastmilk Depot Makes Donation Convenient in Lewisville

Wednesday, 12/12/2018

Mothers who donate their extra breastmilk to Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas (MMBNT) can now drop it off at Medical City Lewisville, the newest of many collection sites in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Donors can deliver their breastmilk to the third floor of the hospital, located at 500 W. Main Street. Staff at the depot accept donations 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will securely store the milk before sending it to MMBNT in Fort Worth.

“At Medical City Lewisville, we are committed to the care and improvement of human life,” Paula Hanna, Lactation Coordinator, said. “We are living out that commitment by becoming a depot site for breastmilk that has life-saving properties specially made for our tiniest of patients.”

MMBNT collects donor human milk from more than 40 collection sites, or depots, throughout North Texas and surrounding areas. Medical City Lewisville is the second depot in Denton County.

Milk donors store the extra breastmilk their own babies don’t need and donate it to the nonprofit, which tests, pasteurizes and dispenses donor human milk for fragile and critically ill infants without access to their mothers’ own milk.

MMBNT staff screen all potential milk donors through medical histories and blood tests and only process a donor’s milk once staff have approved the donor. Milk processing includes thawing, nutritional analysis, pasteurization and bacterial testing to ensure safety.

Donor human milk is the standard of care for premature infants without access to their mothers’ own milk who have severe feeding problems, intestinal malformations and life-threatening complications such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Eighty percent of MMBNT’s donor milk serves babies in hospital NICUs, while 20 percent serves babies at home.

Those who are interested in becoming milk donors can start the process by calling MMBNT at (817) 810-0071. To contact the depot at Medical City Lewisville, call (469) 370-2393.