Breast milk shortage hits B.C. Women's Hospital milk bank

The supply of breast milk at the B.C. Women's Provincial Milk Bank is reaching critically low levels.

"It looks very bare, which is a little scary actually," says Frances Jones, the coordinator at B.C. Women's Hospital.

Breast milk is donated by nursing mothers who have an excess supply, and given to the babies of mothers who are — for a variety of reasons — unable to produce enough milk.

The hospital is particularly concerned about premature babies.

"For the babies receiving it, it can be completely life changing," says Jones.

According to the milk bank website the majority of donated milk is used to feed premature and sick babies who are at high risk for illnesses and infections, such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating bowel disease, that is 10 times more common in premature babies fed formula compared with those babies fed human milk.

"The majority of mothers whose babies are born premature struggle to establish their milk production and keep it going well enough to meet their baby's needs," notes the hospital website.

"Sometimes the mother is ill as well as her baby or may be on medications that don't permit her to feed her milk to her baby. Human milk contains antibodies that fight infection as well as growth hormones which help babies grow and develop."

Situation 'extreme'

According to Jones the situation is becoming extreme, with the supply lower than its ever been.

"Usually you'd walk into the freezer and we would have 8,000 or 9,000 ounces," she says. "Now — just 400 ounces."

Jones says the bank usually runs into a supply problem around Christmas, but this year it started early, leaving them with only a few days worth of usable supply.

"By mid-December at Christmas moms are often busy, but this year it started a month earlier and much more dramatic."

Nursing mothers who think they might be able to help are asked to contact the milk bank at B.C. Women's Hospital.