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Donor Screening

Human milk formulations are made from real human milk donated by nursing mothers who have volunteered to undergo careful screening and blood testing so that they can provide milk to hospitalized babies in need.

• INITIAL SCREENING - Each donor must complete an intensive screening questionnaire, which is reviewed by a qualified professional who documents the results in the donor tracking database. Unsatisfactory answers to certain key questions result in automatic deferral and questionable issues are referred to the medical director.
• MEDICAL RELEASE FORMS - Each potential donor must have signed medical release forms from their personal physician and infant's pediatrician. Amongst other reasons, this helps ensure that donors are not chronically ill and that the infant is in good health.
• BLOOD TESTING - Each donor is screened for evidence of infection with several pathogenic viruses (HTLV, hepatitis B, C, HIV 1 and 2, and syphilis.) 
• DNA MATCH - Each donor's milk is sampled for DNA markers to guarantee that the milk is truly from the registered donor. Each milk specimen is stored frozen and quarantined until matching test results are received. 
• RE-QUALIFICATION - Each donor is required to undergo re-qualification every four months under the same protocol as used in their initial qualification.  

We care about keeping your personal information confidential; our database is secure, and our milk bank is HIPAA compliant.