For 17 years, a human Milk Bank based in Irvinestown has been supplying “precious milk for precious babies.”

The brain-child of former health visitor Ann McCrea, the service was initially set up in 2000 at Irvinestown GP practice when Ann identified a need for human breast milk for sick neonatal babies in the area.
“There was a baby in the Erne with NEC (Necrotizing enterocolitis). The paediatricians knew they could prevent full-blown NEC with human milk. The mother was travelling from Omagh and was shattered and tense and couldn’t produce milk. We contacted a milk bank in England and they said they did not have enough milk. I thought: ‘We need to do something about this,’” Ann recalled.

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The facility moved to larger premises in Mill Street in 2002 and it is the only one of its kind on the island of Ireland. Three staff, employed by the Western Trust, collect, process and store human milk and make it available to sick babies in hospitals and other specialist baby units throughout Ireland.

This week the human Milk Bank issued an appeal for more donors to supply breast milk because they are facing “exceptional” shortages. Only two of their 11 freezers contain milk and, with 900 babies receiving milk in 2016, the highest number ever, Ann and her team predict that the remaining milk will not last long.

According to Ann, the situation is “exceptional” because of the following trends throughout Ireland: hospital neo-natal units are “permanently full”; more babies are being born before 24 weeks and therefore need breast milk for a long period of time; more twins, triplets and quadruplets are being born; and there are more babies being born with heart conditions or gut malabsorption problems.

“Last year we had lots of milk going out but no more milk coming in,” Ann told The Impartial Reporter.

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However, she is confident that her appeal for breast milk donors will pay off because on Monday alone, Ann received 90 email queries from potential donors. “We got a call from a lady down the road who has milk in her freezer so we will arrange to collect that today. We have found that lots of mums have stashes of milk in their freezers from when they were in the neonatal unit and they were not told that there is a milk bank – it’s about getting the message out there that we exist,” she said.
"Breast milk is liquid gold,” believes Ann, who is “passionate about breast feeding.”

She said: “It’s human milk that gets their gut primed, it’s human milk that fights any infections that they can get. It constantly changes to fight all the new infections that they’re liable to have. In some cases, donated milk could mean the difference between life and death.”

In some cases, new mother’s cannot breastfeed their babies, particularly under stressful situations such as travelling long distances to neonatal units. Donors are mothers who are breastfeeding their own babies. They are asked to provide a donation of at least three litres (100ozs), by the time their baby is six months old. A full history is taken from all potential donors and blood tests are undertaken for HIV 1&2, HTLV 1&2, Hepatitis B&C and Syphilis. The milk bank cannot accept donations from mothers who have had a blood transfusion, smoke, received certain IVF treatments or are taking antidepressants.

Donor milk is checked for bacteria, protein and fat content. All the milk has to be pasteurised under UK regulations. After Holder pasteurisation, it is checked again for bacteria. Only clear milk can then be issued to the units. Milk is labelled so hospitals can use the most appropriate milk for the babies in their care.

Milk needed in an emergency usually travels by the Blood Bike Service. It is deep frozen and travels in insulated boxes. Ann describes the ‘blood biker volunteers as “knights in shining armour”. “They whizz the milk away to sick babies,” she explained. “We once got a call from Cork saying they had triplets and the milk was going to run out that evening. We got on to the blood bikers and they had the milk delivered to Cork in five hours.”

Routine hospital supplies travel by hospital transport, Translink or An Post Express Post.

Last year, 500 donations were sent to the Milk Bank and 900 babies received milk. The previous year 1,500 litres of milk was sent to units around Ireland helping approximately 850 babies including 90 sets of twins and 17 sets of triplets. 

Ann recalls how one woman had eight children and donated to the Milk Bank each time. Another woman donated a whopping 38 litres of milk to the Milk Bank. Some mothers who lost their babies have decided to donate their milk in memory of their little one.

Ann concludes: “Women are fantastic. When they know that help is needed they will roll up their sleeves and do it.