{"id":177570,"date":"2026-04-27T21:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/177570\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T21:05:08","slug":"mid-atlantic-mothers-milk-bank-celebrates-a-decade-of-healthier-babies-and-a-new-home-in-bellevue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/177570\/","title":{"rendered":"Mid-Atlantic Mothers’ Milk Bank celebrates a decade of healthier babies and a new home in Bellevue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mid-Atlantic Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank is marking its 10th birthday with a community celebration at its future home in Bellevue on May 2. (You\u2019re invited: Here are the details<\/a>.) Amid all the live music, face painting and birthday cake, and the groundbreaking on their expanded workspace, the Milk Bank team will be celebrating some incredible milestones for the Pittsburgh community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past 10 years, we\u2019ve converted every single Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in western Pennsylvania to using donor milk,\u201d says Mid-Atlantic Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank<\/a> executive director Denise O\u2019Connor. In the process, the rates of life-threatening complications that can happen to preterm infants in the NICU have plummeted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many, many babies here in our region that are alive today only because of donor milk. They did not have to suffer complications. They were able to have the best outcomes possible,\u201d O\u2019Connor says. \u201cWe are seeing the feeding tolerance go up, seeing the complications go down. It\u2019s just been absolutely amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, local hospitals have increased their use of donor milk to include a larger number of babies, including those who have GI issues and cardiac issues. Many hospital systems have even begun using donor milk for some well babies when a mother\u2019s milk hasn\u2019t come in yet, O\u2019Connor says.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cUPMC, for example, has been using it for their well-baby units, and because we know that the exposure to human milk in those first days of life will help form a more diverse and better microbiome. So it\u2019s extraordinarily important,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a mom has a baby that just needs a few sips of supplement in the hospital before they\u2019re discharged, and she doesn\u2019t have her milk coming in yet,\u201d O\u2019Connor says, the data shows that if the baby is given donor milk instead of formula, \u201cwhen we look at those moms weeks and months out, they\u2019re more likely to be exclusively breastfeeding their babies. And that is something that will change the health trajectory of that mom and her baby for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Milk Bank is always excited \u201cto hear from families who have been touched by donor milk,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019d love to hear about those babies that have received donor milk as little, teeny, tiny preterm babies, and now they\u2019re in first grade.\u201d (You can share your story right here<\/a>, if your baby was helped by donor milk. The Milk Bank doesn\u2019t know which babies the hospitals give donor milk to \u2014 they only know\u00a0 that they help thousands of babies each year. So they\u2019re always delighted to hear from families.)<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>Photo by Natalie Lacek courtesy of the Mid-Atlantic Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank.<\/p>\n

The Mid-Atlantic Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank also has begun offering donor milk to Pittsburgh-region babies beyond hospitals. Outpatient babies who have a need for donor milk can receive it at the Milk Bank or it can be shipped to them overnight. They just need a prescription. Only about half of the milk banks in the U.S. provide this service.<\/p>\n

\u201cOftentimes, if there\u2019s a medical need for donor milk, it will be covered by insurance. And we\u2019re lucky here in the state of Pennsylvania: One of the things that we advocated for and were able to champion and get passed is Owen\u2019s Law<\/a>, which went into effect in January of 2024,\u201d O\u2019Connor says. \u201cIt mandates the coverage of donor milk for babies that have certain medical circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor points out that none of these saved lives and improved outcomes would be possible without so many caring donors. \u201cOur donors are all unpaid volunteers, very similar to a blood bank,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Thinking of donating? You can get all the details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some pre-screening questions on there, and then it\u2019ll allow you to set up the phone interview with one of our screeners. It also gives lots of information about the whole entire process of screening,\u201d O\u2019Connor says. \u201cIt\u2019s a thorough process to make donor milk safe, but we try to make it as easy as possible. A lot of our donors say that it was a very easy process and very rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mid-Atlantic Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank is marking its 10th birthday with a community celebration at its future home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[15944,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-177570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-mid-atlantic-mothers-milk-bank","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}