Rotary Community Breast Milk Bank Charitable Trust

BANKING ON THE FUTURE

Sometimes donor milk is just a short term gift to a mother and baby. This will have a significant impact on the short and long term health of babies.

Some women have challenges to establishing and maintaining their breast milk supply and many would rather use donor milk supply before infant formula.

Human Breast milk protects babies from gut, chest, ear and bladder infections because of immune factors in the milk and ongoing support for immune system development.

The funds raised go towards keeping the Rotary Community Breast Milk Bank going for the total benefit of mothers and babies in the Canterbury area. Rotary is wanting to keep this service free of charge and requires $ 30,000 per year for the pasteurisation of breast milk and associated items such as specialised blood tests for donors, donor kits, bottles, chilly bags and items associated with office administration. We are grateful to St. George's Hospital for their ongoing support in that they have given us dedicated space within the hospital to run this service.

The World Health Organisation says donor milk is the next best thing for babies after milk from baby's own mother, and the WHO suggest that human milk banks should be made available wherever possible.

Since we opened 5years ago we have helped over 2000 babies, had 90+ mothers donate their precious milk and involved over 70 volunteers. We are now open 5 days a week for 2 hours a day.

We know that there is a need for our services and we need your help to continue to grow this free service and give the mothers and babies in our region access to help them establish their milk supply.