This World Breastfeeding Week (and beyond!), NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde thanks the amazing women that donate to the NHS GGC Donor Milk Bank and the fantastic team that keep the resource running.
The NHS GGC Donor Milk Bank covers the whole of Scotland and provides screened pasteurised human milk to babies who have no or limited access to their own mother’s milk. These babies are often born prematurely.
Premature babies are born with immature intestines and immature immune systems. They are often at greater risk of infection and Necrotising Enterocolitis, a potentially fatal gut condition. Breast milk from a baby’s own mother is always the best nutrition in this scenario, but this may not always be available, especially in the first few days of life.
That’s why donated human milk invaluable and why we’re sharing our thanks to the wonderful team at the NHS GGC Donor Milk Bank and the amazing mums that donate their breast milk.
In June 2023, the NHS GGC Donor Milk Bank celebrated 10 years of operation and last month the Royal Hospital for Children Neonatal Unit, Glasgow and the Princess Royal Maternity Neonatal Unit, Glasgow were awarded Scotland’s first UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative Gold and Achieving Sustainability accreditation for their support of families with feeding and developing close and loving relationships.
New mum, Eilidh Binning, leaned on the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Milk Bank to breastfeed her son.
“To put it simply, the milk bank and provision of donor milk is the reason I’ve been fortunate enough to breastfeed my son. He arrived at 37 weeks and had a short stay in the NICU, and donor milk allowed him to get a great start while we were separated in those early days.
“I had some challenges with breast feeding at the start – my milk took a while to come in, expressing wasn’t yielding the volumes he needed to gain weight and latching was hard, but the milk bank and provision of donor milk meant that, while all these issues were ironed out, he continued to get all the goodness he needed from donated breast milk. This set him up for when I was able to give him what he needed.
“We are so grateful to the women who donate their milk and allow this service to be available to those who need it,” said Eilidh.
If you would like to find out more about breast milk donation then please visit the Milk Bank website.