Héma-Québec Public Mothers' Milk Bank Program expands - Mother's milk donors needed in Gatineau

GATINEAU, QC, April 27, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - The Héma-Québec Public Mothers' Milk Bank is starting a project in Gatineau aiming to recruit 80 donors on a yearly basis, to meet the growing demand for mother's milk for very premature infants.

To participate, mothers in the Outaouais area who are healthy, non-smoking, nursing and able to produce surplus milk must first register with the Bank on Héma-Québec's Web site. They must also reside less than an hour's drive from the drop-off point, the Gatineau PLASMAVIE Plasma Donor Lounge, located at 205, rue Bellehumeur.

Mothers who meet the qualification criteria collect their milk at home in the bottles supplied by Héma-Québec, freeze it and bring it to the drop-off point at their convenience.

Ongoing need to help very premature infants
The Public Mothers' Milk Bank has been in operation since 2014 and is mandated to provide pasteurized human milk to premature infants born at 32 weeks or earlier who require medical care and whose mother is unable to breastfeed.

Donated milk helps reduce the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis, a serious intestinal disease, by an average of 3.3 times. In addition, premature infants are more likely to achieve a satisfactory weight, less prone to infections, and less likely to be hospitalized again when fed with donated milk.

To meet the growing demand from hospital neonatology teams in the province, Héma-Québec already expanded the recruitment of mother's milk donors to the Montréal and Québec City metropolitan communities in June 2016, and Sherbrooke last November. Nevertheless, the Bank is currently only able to provide milk to the most vulnerable premature infants, those born at 30 weeks or earlier. More donors are therefore needed to enable Héma-Québec to provide enough mother's milk for all premature infants born at 32 weeks or earlier, and the pilot project in Sherbrooke is part of the strategy.

Given that mothers participating in the Public Mothers' Milk Bank provide milk for an average of 6 months, it is a constant renewal process: 300 donors must be actively donating.

About Héma-Québec
Héma-Québec's mission is to efficiently meet the needs of the Québec population for quality blood and other biological products of human origin.

Héma-Québec encompasses 1,300 employees and nearly 240,000 blood, stem cell, mother's milk and human tissue donors, in addition to thousands of blood drive volunteers. Each year, Héma-Québec delivers some 750,000 human biological products to Québec hospitals to meet the needs of patients.

Give Milk. Give Life.

www.hema-quebec.qc.ca

SOURCE Héma-Québec

Héma-Québec, Media line, 514 832-0871