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Much like donated blood, donor human milk is life-saving for premature babies. The Human Milk Foundation supplies donor milk to hospital neonatal intensive care units and to mums at home with cancer and other health conditions through The Hearts Milk Bank and support parents through crisis.
Categories
Beneficiaries
Situation
Premature babies are very vulnerable due to their immature immune systems. The impact of not feeding premature babies with human milk is devastating and can result in death from a condition called necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). If a mother is not able to produce her own milk, donor milk acts like a medicine to protect the baby from NEC, yet is only available on the NHS to the very sickest premature babies meaning hundreds of babies die each year.
Solution
The Human Milk Foundation was set up to address this inequality and to scale up to make it possible for every baby who could benefit to have access to donor milk, which will save hundreds of babies' lives each year. We provide specialist one-to-one lactation support alongside donor milk provision to families in the community to help them feed their babies wherever possible. The charity also leads and facilitates vital research in the field of human milk science.
