WELLESLEY, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- It can be the extra boost a baby needs to ensure a healthy start at life; particularly, for premature or sick babies. But a recent shortage at a milk bank is causing problems. Our Heather Hegedus caught up with a Wellesley family who benefited from the bank to find out how you can help.
Seventeen-month-old twins Soren and Meret Stickney are active healthy toddlers now, but they were born at just 31 weeks. And when their mother, Anouschka, wasn't able to produce enough of her own breast milk the family turned to Mothers' Milk Bank Northeast based in Newton. It's the only milk bank in the northeast and gives sick babies a fighting chance at life.
"This is a unique thing that we can only get from mothers who have more than their babies need," Executive Director of the bank Naomi Bar-Yam said. "And so that makes it a unique gift that mothers are proud, and rightfully proud, to be able to share."
They process between 300 and 400 bottles of milk each day at the bank, but demand is up and the bank's been dealing with a recent shortage.
"We are required by our regulations to send milk to the sickest babies first. But there are sick babies who are not hospitalized who really need the milk. And that's really hard for us to have to say to the family we can not get the milk for you right now," Bar-Yam said.
That's why the organization and the Stickney family are both making an open appeal for new donors to help fill the bank's empty freezer shelves.
"I don't want to hear from mother's, which I hear very often, 'I wish I'd known, I would have donated,'" Bar-Yam said.
And donating milk doesn't cost anything, there is a screening process, but the milk bank covers all the expenses. If you're interested in donating, visit milkbankne.org or call 671-340-3489.
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