Church In New Zealand Open Center For Mother To Donate Breast Milk

Christ Church Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in New Zealand recently had an open day where they encouraged women to donate there breast milk as they intended to expand.


Over 40 offers of help from willing volunteers has been fielded by the bank since then.

The donated milk is frozen, pasteurised, checked for bacteria and given to babies. This ideal was born out of the desire to give babies human milk instead of formula, If their mothers are unable to express milk. About 20 percent of babies in NICU receive milk from another mother.

Milk bank manager Anthea Franks said raw breast milk could be donated up to three months from when it was first expressed and could be frozen for another three months following pasteurisation.

 The bank has been running for two years and it is New Zealand’s only human milk.