A Berkhamsted-based charity dedicated to providing human milk for premature babies is looking for more local donors.
The Human Milk Foundation (HMF), which is based at Gossoms End Health Centre, is looking for mums living in the town and the wider area to donate their unused breast milk to the Hearts Milk Bank, also located at the health centre.
This milk is then stored and subsequently distributed to neonatal units across both England and Wales.
Felicity Webster of the HMF said: “Babies born early are very vulnerable to illness. Their immune systems haven’t fully developed yet. Feeding them human milk helps protect them, so it really can be lifesaving.”
Human milk can help to protect against a variety of illnesses, including necrotising enterocolitis, a condition which is responsible for more baby deaths a year than leukaemia.
The milk can also be used at home by parents with HIV, those undergoing cancer treatment, those who have given birth by surrogate, and same-sex couples, amongst others.
As demand for milk is increasing, the HMF is hoping to build up its stock.
Felicity added: “We’re currently dealing with a national increase in demand, and that increase isn’t going to stop any time soon. It’s gone up by a third in the last year.”
To find out more about HMF and how to donate, please visit their website.
Photo Credit: Hearts Mill Bank
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