In order to provide an opportunity for more babies in our own community to be able to receive and benefit from mother’s milk, Intermountain Medical Center has opened a mother’s milk donation center.

The Intermountain Donation and Outreach Center will serve as a collection and screening site for Mothers’ Milk Bank in Denver. The new center will facilitate donation drop-offs and provide blood tests for mothers who want to become milk donors.

Mothers who qualify can bring their milk donations directly to the center, where it will be frozen and shipped to Mothers’ Milk Bank in Denver. Once in Denver, the milk is pasteurized and sent to hospitalized babies across the country, many of them right here in Utah.

“This is a great opportunity to be able to help babies right here in our own community and across the country to have the best start at life possible,” says Lori Eining, RN, director of Women’s Services for Intermountain Medical Center.

Potential milk donors must complete a pre-screening and blood test before they can drop off donations at the center. The screening ensures that the donor is healthy and has enough milk supply to meet her own baby’s needs first. Blood is tested for infectious diseases.

Those interested can fill out a donation screening form on the Denver Mothers’ Milk Bank website, www.milkbankcolorado.org, or call them at (303) 869-1888.

For more information about the Intermountain Medical Center Donation and Outreach Center, visit intermountainmedicalcenter.org/milkdonation or call Rebecca Rocks, lactation specialist, at (801) 507-7683.