Vail Health opens milk depot at Family Birth Center
The new resource supports families and babies in need with donor milk
Vail Health/Courtesy Photo
Vail Health Hospital and Mothers’ Milk Bank, a nonprofit program of Rocky Mountain Children’s Health Foundation, in June created a new local milk depot at the hospital’s Family Birth Center to help increase access to donor human milk by making it easy and convenient for breastfeeding parents to donate their excess milk for families and babies in need.
“On behalf of Vail Health, we are proud to support women in our community that are able to donate to other families and babies in need of breast milk,” said Elizabeth McDaniel, director of the Vail Health Family Birth Center.
“Living in a mountain area, there have been barriers to donation, including donors having to leave the valley to participate in the donor approval process and then shipping the milk themselves. This designation helps eliminate those barriers and makes donating more accessible for women in our mountain community,” McDaniel added.
RN and lactation consultant Paisley Frischholz said, “Having a milk depot in the mountains is so important because we currently use a lot of donor milk in the hospital.”
“We use it for the NICU babies who are often premature and sometimes their mom’s milk isn’t in yet. We need mother’s milk to feed and nourish the babies to help them survive and thrive. We also use it on the Vail Health Hospital’s Family Birth Center floor for any baby who needs it,” Frischholz said.
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Vail Valley mom Elena Delgado Vazquez has been both a donor and a recipient of these services.
“I first received donor milk because I had a very long and difficult birthing experience and my milk took almost two weeks to come in. My baby wasn’t getting as much as she needed and she started to lose weight so the hospital suggested we give her donor milk to help her put on weight,” Vazquez said.
After giving her daughter donor milk, she was able to recover the weight she lost, giving Vazquez time to build her own milk supply.
“After that experience, I had no doubts that I wanted to become a donor so that I could help make other mom’s lives easier. I encourage all moms who have extra breast milk to donate it so that whether a baby needs to go into a NICU or not, moms who need it have access to human milk,” she added.
Milk dropped off at Vail Health’s Family Birth Center is shipped to Mothers’ Milk Bank in Arvada for processing.
The nonprofit program has provided donor human milk to babies nationwide for 40 years. The majority of the organization’s milk goes to neonatal intensive care units to feed the most fragile babies. The remaining milk, about 10 to 20%, is made available to outpatient families who need additional supplementation or who don’t have access to human milk directly, as often happens in cases of surrogacy or adoption.
For parents who decide to breastfeed, it is normal to experience a delay as their milk comes in. Donor human milk can provide a “bridge” for babies during this time and help protect them from illness and infection while keeping their bellies full.
“We are grateful to our donors for sharing this valuable and lifesaving gift,” says Rebecca Heinrich, director of Mothers’ Milk Bank. “Once a potential donor has been screened and approved, we try to make donating milk as easy as possible, and milk depots like the new one at Vail Health Hospital provide a convenient place for donors to drop off milk right in their community.”
In addition to serving as drop-off locations, depots support donors by storing milk, preparing shipments to Mothers’ Milk Bank, and in some instances, drawing blood for the screening process. They also serve as a critical partner in helping spread the word about milk donation.
The nonprofit typically works with 150 to 200 donors per month, including about 100 new donors each month. In the first two quarters of 2024, Mothers’ Milk Bank received 260,206 ounces of donor human milk from 487 donors and distributed 214,630 ounces to hospitals and families.
There is always a need for more milk donors, as fragile infants are born every day and donors are only eligible until their baby is 24 months old. Healthy lactating parents with extra breast milk who are interested in learning more about how to donate can contact Mothers’ Milk Bank at 303-869-1888 or at MilkBankColorado.org.
