Photo by Alyx Chandler.
The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama is a human milk bank that helps premature and ill infants, as well as community members in need by giving mothers in need pasteurized breast milk. Executive Director Kristina Habchi holds a bottle of milk ready for donation.
As of 2019, Alabama is one of only 26 states in the U.S. that has a human milk bank, with its headquarters located in Birmingham.
A human milk bank, also known as a breast milk bank, is a service that collects and distributes milk donated by nursing mothers who are not biologically related to the recipient infant.
Kristina Habchi, executive director of the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama, said since 2015, their nonprofit has been accredited by the national organization, the Human Milk Bank of North America. Being licensed allows the bank to collect, screen, process and distribute milk to mothers with infants. Due to lack of donated milk, priority is given to those in the neonatal intensive care units at hospitals around the state, including some of the state’s biggest hospitals in Birmingham.
The World Health Organization states that when breast milk from the mother is not available, the next best alternative, if available, is human breast milk. Although formula is a widely used and safe option in the U.S., human milk is sometimes prescribed or recommended by doctors when infants are born premature, have compromised immune systems or other special circumstances.
Habchi, now certified and trained as a lactation counselor, said she didn’t know a lot about the science and history of breastfeeding before she moved into the role in 2016.
“I know people say milk is gold and all that, but the science behind that is a mom’s milk changes day to day based on the age of the baby, the mom and the need of the current time. Milk automatically produces antibodies needed,” she said. “There’s all this science behind it that’s really incredible. You really can’t create, make it in a lab.”
Habchi said the Mothers’ Milk Bank was originally started as a wing of the Food Bank in 2013, but it quickly became apparent that the program needed a separate medical advisory board and governance, so it became an individual nonprofit.
DONATING PROCESS
Mothers have excess milk for a variety of reasons, Habchi said, ranging from mothers who produce more milk than their baby can consume to bereaving mothers. Each woman who wants to donate must go through a screening process to make sure they are in good health, along with their baby and family. The screening checks a variety of things that would affect their milk supply, including if they are taking certain medicines or have certain illnesses.
Habchi said they have a person on staff whose sole job is to screen all the mothers donating.
Women who want to donate their breast milk can pump and freeze their milk and drop it off for donation without any cost. They do have to be screened through a questionnaire, provide a blood test paid for by the milk bank and get signed off by their doctors. If one of the 13 drop-off locations for donated milk isn’t close by, they will also send the mother a cooler to ship the milk overnight.
After the milk is screened, volunteers who run the lab strategically mix multiple milks together to “give it a good balance of nutrients,” Habchi said, and it also helps dilute any medications like ibuprofen to non-traceable amounts. The lab, located at 107 Walter Davis Drive, has procedures to keep it sterile, she said.
The donated milk is then poured into small bottles, capped tight and put through holder pasteurization, where the milk is put in a shaking water bath and the temperature quickly rises and is held for 30 minutes straight. This maintains all the nutrients while also destroying almost all bacteria — which is especially critical because the milk is typically going to medically unstable babies — and then it is rapidly cooled down. Habchi said they pick random bottles to be double-checked for any bacteria growth and when they are determined to be bacteria-free, they send orders to mostly NICU units in hospitals, as well as a few approved individuals or families in need.
MEETING NEEDS
Currently, Habchi said, their program only has enough milk circulation to serve mostly hospitals, but they are hoping to expand the program to include more.
“There’s no doubt that mom’s own milk is the best milk for a baby because it’s made specifically for that one baby. But when that’s not available, that’s where we come in to hopefully fill that gap,” she said.
Habchi said due to the lack of milk and resources to help all of those who request milk for their infants, they have designed a need-based scale. Ultimately though, their goal is to be able to cover everyone who wants access to human milk, regardless of where their situation is on the scale.
Other situations where people might want breast milk for their infants include same-sex couples, adoptions, women who can’t produce milk due to mastectomies and illnesses that affect milk production. Habchi said she reviews all the cases herself, and she can be contacted at khabchi@mmbal.org or call her at 942-8911, ext.117, to submit a case for review.
Habchi said their goal is to be able to distribute 100,000 ounces annually. As of 2018, they are more than halfway to their goal, and they have projected about 72,000 ounces for 2019.
Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama asks that mothers donate at least 100 ounces due to the expenses put into screening and preparing the donations. They deliver to 13 different hospitals in the state, as well as others in the Southeast when needed. The hospitals with the largest deliveries in Birmingham, Habchi said, include Children’s of Alabama, UAB Hospital and St. Vincent’s Hospital.
“Human banking cannot exist without breast feeding support in the community — we just can’t exist. We have a lot of work to do in Alabama when it comes to this,” she said.
According to the CDC, Alabama has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the U.S.
“We have a lot of work to do when it comes to supporting moms and making it as easy as possible. We have a lot of resources in Birmingham, but Birmingham isn’t all of Alabama,” she said. “We have a lot of work to do with spreading out resources and making them available to moms.”
All volunteers must be older than 16 and need to be able to commit at least two hours a week. Mothers’ Milk Bank of Alabama is looking for both volunteers and monetary donations, as well as milk donations.
To learn more, go to mmbal.org or their Facebook page at @MothersMilkBankofAlabama.
