Wirral Mothers' Milk Bank - Breast Pumps

UPDATE: This project was completed in 2010.

The milk bank is a donor milk service supplying pasteurised donor breast milk to neo natal units at 14 hospital trusts across the north west.

While breastfeeding improves the health of all newborn babies, it is crucial for pre-term and low birth weight babies to be fed human milk. Babies weighing under 1.5 kg or born under 30 weeks’ gestation need human milk. The lining of the gut is still growing, and introduction of foreign proteins from formula milk leads to serious developmental problems that can be fatal. Very premature babies are fed tiny amounts of human milk in conjunction with IV feeding, to encourage them to move on to full milk feeds as quickly as possible. This practice, known as gut priming, gives babies the best chance of survival and reduced long-term complications.

It is always preferable to use the mother’s own milk, but often this is not possible. In many cases, the cause of the premature birth is linked to ante-natal illness, so the mother may be very ill. Also the stress of a very premature labour can mean the mother struggles to produce milk in the early days. Other causes, such as drug or medicine use by the mother can mean their milk can’t be used. On average 45% of neo natal babies use donor milk at some time, even if it’s just to help the mother through the first days. Last year over 400 pre-term babies used donor milk supplied by the milk bank at the two main sites, Clatterbridge and Liverpool Women’s Hospital, and as many again at other sites across Manchester and Lancashire.

The scheme also has an impact on the take-up rates of breastfeeding among mothers of pre-term babies who may otherwise not have been planning to breastfeed. It emphasises the importance of breastfeeding to new mothers, who often then choose to continue breastfeeding after leaving hospital.

The service needs 100 disposable pumps to be given out to new donor mothers to help them produce milk for donation to the service.

The total cost of this project is £1,780.00.