PORT ST. LUCIE – When new mom Chelly Snow had her baby daughter, she was what is called an “overproducer” of breast milk. Her dear friend, who lived far away, had also just given birth, but had the opposite problem and was an “underproducer.”
Snow realized this was a real problem with no easy solution. She told her husband, Glenn, that she wanted to fix the problem and an idea was born.
The Snows developed a website called Only the Breast which connected overproducers with underproducers. That was 15 years ago. Today, the company is called LactaLogics and the concept has grown into a large company that uses donor moms to provide breast milk which will then be shipped to hospitals nationwide for babies born prematurely or at risk infants.
The company is the only one in the country using a proprietary pasteurization system to stabilize the breast milk for transportation and to provide for a longer shelf-life. LactaLogics headquarters and operating facility is 70,000 square feet and is based in Port St. Lucie near the intersection of Crosstown Parkway and U.S.#1. LactaLogics currently has more than 1,000 donor moms in their database.
Christina Dolan, vice president of corporate operations for LactaLogics spoke at a recent Economic Development Council luncheon. “Our facility will have the ability, once we get our pipeline going, to feed 100% of the babies in our nation’s NICU’s by the end of the year,” Dolan said. “We can have 100% viability throughout the United States.”
According to the company’s website, as technology has improved, more and more infants have been able to survive premature birth. Healthy growth requires fortification, but most hospitals have to rely on formula and bovine fortifiers because human milk-based nutrition is expensive and in short supply.
Through innovation and holistic donor care, LactaLogics is equipping Hospital NICUs with safe and affordable human milk-based products that provide quality proteins, prioritize mother’s milk, and help preterm infants grow.
LactaLogics will offer flexible shift schedules and six-hour work shifts in order to accommodate families. Their goal is to pay above the average wage to make up for working less than 40 hours a week.