MONTRÉAL, Aug. 15, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Héma-Québec's Public Mother's Milk Bank is increasing its efforts to recruit new mothers to meet all the needs of infants born preterm at 32 weeks' gestation or earlier. Some 200 nursing mothers currently donate to the Bank, but 300 donors are needed at any given time to meet the growing need of neonatal teams in hospitals that order units of breast milk.
For the mother of little Mévick, born at 28½ weeks' gestation, the support of the Bank has been vital. Today the toddler is 13-months old and doing wonderfully. "When my son was born, I could only produce a small amount of milk. The nurses at Sainte-Justine Hospital suggested that I supplement Mévick's feeding with milk from the Bank and I readily accepted. I knew nothing about the Bank at the time," Myriam Beaudry recounts.
In the past year, 695 donors have registered to donate milk to the Bank, which has distributed close to 10,000 bottles of breast milk. But 40,000 bottles are required each year to meet the needs. The organization is therefore calling on the generosity of nursing mothers to save even more lives.
Who can donate breast milk?
Women who are in good health, non-smokers and plan to give birth in one of Héma-Québec's partner centres can register during their pregnancy to donate to the Bank. Nursing mothers who live in a municipality of the Montréal Metropolitan Community or Quebec Metropolitan Community, are breastfeeding an infant under 12 months and wish to donate their excess milk can also take part in the Public Mother's Milk Bank program by registering after their delivery.
For more information and to register for the Public Mother's Milk Bank, go to www.hema-quebec.qc.ca, Mother's Milk section.
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, nearly 165,000 blood donors, more than 2,000 mobile blood drives per year across Québec, thousands of volunteers and more than 300,000 blood products delivered annually to Québec hospitals to meet the needs of patients.
SOURCE Héma-Québec
Héma-Québec, Media line | 514 832-0871, www.hema-quebec.qc.ca
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