What is the Depot Donor Milk Bank South West?

Healthy Babies UK have set up a Depot Donor Milk Bank in Tiverton so that South West parents have the same options and access to donor milk as the rest of the country. 

HBUK have authorised a partnership to act as a Depot where milk can be stored safely and securely on site to enable NICU Support (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) the Devon Freewheelers and Blood Bike Group to efficiently deliver and collect donor breast milk, something which is currently not feasible to the major hospitals in the South West.

Healthy Babies UK is an established base with a home from home environment where mothers wishing to donate can be welcomed.  The house is a focal point for the freewheelers/blood bikes to be able to meet and then take donated milk onto Bristol to be pasteurised.

Why is there a need for a Depot Donor Milk Bank?

Donor breastmilk is used for pre-term and neonatal units. Human milk is a complex, living fluid that is more than simply nutrition.  It has specific health promoting components that have been proven to enhance infant health that cannot be provided by infant formula. It is considered to be a living fluid due to its ant-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-parasitic factors as well as hormones, enzymes, specific growth factors and immunological properties

HBUK support Bristol to enable more milk to be donated and more babies to have access to donor milk.

Research has demonstrated that feeding sick or premature babies breast milk reduces the risk of infection and other problems due to its special anti-infective properties; this increases their chance of survival and helps their long-term development.