Intermountain Medical Center Opens Breast Milk Donation Center in Murray

report by kuer.org

Intermountain Medical Center in Murray has opened a breast milk collection center to serve the Mother’s Milk Bank in Denver. Mothers are able to give their extra milk to the center within days of being screened. 

Photo-Primary Children's Medical Center Blog

Lori Eining is the director of Women’s Services for IMC.  She says lactation specialists at Intermountain have been working for about a year to get the center going. 

Miriam Bastian is confident the center will succeed. She is a nurse practitioner in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of both IMC and Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City. She helped set up IMC’s collection center as a task force member of the Mountain West Mother’s Milk Bank. Bastian says the body of scientific evidence is overwhelming in favor of mother’s milk over formula, especially for newborns. 

“It’s even more important for medically fragile babies like premature babies or babies with heart disease or intestinal problems,” says Bastian, “Mother’s milk has been associated with a lot less complications.” Bastian says the goal is to have a facility in the Salt Lake Valley dedicated to the collection and distribution of milk by next year. She says the culture is swinging back toward the increased benefits of mother’s milk.