Lactating New Westminster moms have really poured on the generosity this year.
Breast milk donations between January and June were more than five times what they were during the same period last year, according to the Fraser Health Authority.
Donations during the six-month span jumped to 64,300 millilitres – compared to 12,592 last year.
“Twice a year we check in with all of our milk depots, and they send us their tallies and we do a grand total,” spokesperson Tasleem Juma told the Record. “Across the region it’s up, which is fantastic, but New West was five times more in the same six-month period.”
Milk donation across all of Fraser Health’s milk depots surged from 551,204 ml to 882,257 ml, a 38 per cent increase.
In April 2015, Fraser Health signed a first-of-its-kind agreement with the ministry of health and the Provincial Health Services Authority, which oversees B.C. Women’s Hospital and the B.C. Women’s Provincial Milk Bank.
Fraser Health collects donor breast milk at each of its 17 public health units and ships it to the milk bank, which processes it and ships it back to the health authority’s neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) to feed to vulnerable newborn babies.
Fraser Health officials said stories published in the Record about the agreement helped boost local donations.
“Our program credits, in part, the news stories your papers printed in the spring and summer of last year for this incredible result,” Juma stated in an email.
For more information about breast milk donation, visit bcwomensmilkbank.ca.
