Saint Barnabas in New Jersey opens human milk depot, collects donations for babies in need

A new bank branch has opened in New Jersey — one whose customers are newborn babies and whose currency is mother’s milk.  

Nursing mothers can donate excess breast milk at the milk “depot” that opened Tuesday at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, where it is frozen and sent to Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast. There it is pasteurized, bottled, safety-tested and shipped to hospitals in 13 states.  

Babies in the Saint Barnabas nursery and its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) can be fed banked milk if their mother’s milk supply has not yet come in, or if their mothers are unable to breastfeed for any reason.  

“Breast milk is the ideal nutrient for babies,” said Dr. Timothy Yeh, chairman of pediatrics at the medical center, part of RWJBarnabas Health. For full-term babies, it has been shown to boost immunity, reduce allergies and lower rates of obesity later in life.  

And for premature babies, breast milk provides those benefits and serves almost like medicine, said Dr. Kamtorn Vangvanichyakorn, director of the neonatal intensive care unit. For the last 10 years, the Saint Barnabas NICU has used only breast milk — no formula — with babies born at less than 33 weeks' gestational age.  

The results have included a dramatic reduction in the incidence of a devastating digestive problem that had occurred in nearly 10 percent of such fragile pre-term babies, she said. The disease — necrotizing enterocolitis, which causes parts of the intestine to die — has a mortality rate as high as 50 percent and can cause lifelong complications. Through use of human breast milk, the incidence of the disease at Saint Barnabas has been cut to less than 2 percent of pre-term babies.  

Both donated human breast milk and mother’s milk provide antibodies that help stimulate the baby’s response to infection and help the baby grow, she said.  

“It may take several days for a new mother to produce enough milk to meet the baby’s needs,” Yeh said. For mothers of full-term babies whose milk has not yet come in, the banked milk can serve as a bridge to make it possible for them to feed their babies exclusively with breast milk when they leave the hospital. 

More than 103,000 babies are born each year in New Jersey, nearly 10 percent of them prematurely, or before 37 weeks of gestation. For low-birth-weight babies, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends donor human milk if the mother's milk is insufficient.  

While "wet nurses" have been around since biblical times, and a brisk online market in human milk exists, milk banks are regulated and safe. 

Mother’s Milk Bank Northeast, in Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts, is one of 27 non-profit milk banks in the United States and Canada. The milk banks use guidelines for screening donors, processing the milk and dispensing it that were developed in consultation with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. 

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Women who donate milk are generally nursing their own babies and have excess milk, although the milk bank also receives donations from bereaved mothers who have had a stillbirth. Milk from two to five donors is combined at the milk bank, poured into 1-ounce bottles and pasteurized. A bottle from each tray of bottles is tested for safety, and then the milk is dispensed to hospitals.  

At Saint Barnabas, the pasteurized human breast milk is stored in two freezers, according to its caloric content, and thawed in the refrigerator before being fortified and fed to the babies. The tiniest pre-term babies are fed through nasal tubes before they learn to suck, usually at the equivalent of 34 to 36 weeks’ gestational age.   

Gidget Romero, whose son Gino was born Oct. 8, was the first to donate Tuesday at Saint Barnabas. An oncology nurse at the hospital, she brought 150 ounces of breast milk that had been frozen in plastic bags and transported in a cooler to the opening ceremony. 

“What better way to give back?” asked the Belleville woman, as she held young Gino. She expressed gratitude for the comforting care she had received during a difficult, high-risk pregnancy and her son’s four-day stay in the NICU.  

Two former recipients of donor milk, now age 7, also attended the ceremony with their mother, Laura Lomonte. 

Nick and Will Lomonte weighed 2 pounds and 1-pound-10-ounces, respectively, at birth. They spent two months in the NICU. After the first two weeks, Lomonte said, her milk just stopped. 

“I think it just hit me that I had three kids at home and one preemie and one micro-preemie,” she said. “The stress just kicked in.” 

The boys were fed banked milk for the rest of their stay and are now strong and healthy, she said. “We feel blessed and thankful we could have banked milk,” she added.  

Each ounce of banked milk costs the hospital $3.97. It is given to babies by prescription only. Most insurers, including New Jersey Medicaid, cover the cost for babies who need it.  

The Saint Barnabas depot is the first in New Jersey for Mother’s Milk Bank Northeast.  

The New York Milk Bank has three milk depots in the state, at Hackensack Meridian Health-Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, Laid Back Lactation in Morristown, and Lev Rochel Bikur Cholim of Lakewood, the state’s first kosher milk depot. It accepts donations only from Jewish women who keep kosher. Their milk is collected and pasteurized separately, said Julie Bouchet-Horwitz, The New York Milk Bank’s founder and executive director.  

New Jersey currently does not have a milk bank that collects, pasteurizes and distributes human breast milk. Licensing regulations are being developed by the state Health Department, under a state law signed last year.  

For more information about donating milk, see milkbankne.org/donate/.