Ochsner St. Anne Hospital Officially a Milk Depot

RACELAND –As part of Ochsner’s continued commitment to providing evidenced-based programs that support mother-infant bonding and safe feeding practices, Ochsner St. Anne Hospital is proud to announce that it’s the FIRST in the region to open a Milk Depot for the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Louisiana at Ochsner Baptist. The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Louisiana (MMBL) received accreditation from the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) in March 2018, making Louisiana the 22nd state in the U.S. to open a HMBANA-accredited donor human milk bank.

There is a large need for donor human milk in hospital neonatal intensive care units across the United States. A milk depot provides a secure convenient storage place for approved donors to donate this scarce resource. Women who are actively lactating are eligible to be screened by the MMBL staff at no charge to become an approved human milk donor. Depot sites such as Ochsner St. Anne function as a user-friendly and safe satellite storage facility for HMBANA milk banks such as MMBL. The milk is stored and shipped frozen to MMBL for pasteurization.

Nonprofit milk banks like MMBL follow HMBANA guidelines to ensure donor human milk is safe and available to the infants who need it most. The human milk dispensed is processed to meet the specific needs of fragile and sick babies.

"We are extremely excited to have a local place where approved donors can drop off their life saving milk to be used for infants in need across our state” said lactation nurse Pam Folse from Ochsner St. Anne Hospital. “We are so grateful to Dr. Natasha Goss, OB/GYN at Ochsner Women’s Health Center – Raceland, for being both a resource & our first official approved donor here at the Ochsner St. Anne Milk Depot.”

Mothers interested in donating their milk first undergo a screening process which includes lab work. Once the screening process is complete, the donor is given a MMBL donor ID number and can drop off milk at Ochsner St. Anne Hospital seven days per week. Approved donors can bring their milk to the third floor Mother Baby Unit between 8 AM and 6 PM. To schedule a drop off call (985) 537-2335.

For more information on the milk depot at Ochsner St. Anne, please contact the Lactation Department at (985) 537-8291. To learn more about Mothers’ Milk Bank of Louisiana please call (504) 703-6455 or click here. To schedule an appointment with an Ochsner St. Anne Women’s Health provider, call 985-537-3211 or visit www.Ochsner.org/info to schedule online.