A baby formula shortage has prompted a “major surge in interest” in donor breast milk, according to Lindsey Groff, the executive director of the Human Milk Bank Association of North America, which accredits nonprofit milk banks.
At Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin in Texas, one of the largest milk banks in the United States, requests for donor milk started ticking up in February, when a product recall added to existing supply chain woes. “Some are desperate. Some are angry. Some are sobbing,” she said of parents who are calling, some with just a day’s worth of formula left in their pantries.
Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank in Pittsburgh, meanwhile, has increased its donations by 20 percent in the last three weeks to meet demand, said Denise O’Connor, its executive director and a lactation consultant.Milk is prepared for pasteurization at the Three Rivers Mothers' Milk Bank in Pittsburgh in 2017.Accredited milk banks carefully screen donors through a verbal questionnaire, written clearance from a physician and a blood test.