Oklahoma soon to have Mother's Milk Bank

Founders of the new Oklahoma Mother's Milk Bank hope the bank will be fully operational by the end of May, just in time for the state's largest annual breast feeding conference, said Becky Mannel, a lactation coordinator for OU Medical Center and vice president of the board of directors of the Oklahoma Mother's Milk Bank.

“The word is spreading that there's a huge need,” Mannel said. “We expect to have a lot more mothers donating.”

Heather Kinney donated her excess milk to the Texas milk bank for nine months, for a total of 2,211 ounces. Even though she was actively nursing her twin baby girls, Kinney, of Yukon, said she had plenty of milk to spare. When twins Hannah and Lydia were about 9-months-old, Kinney decided to donate the milk to a human milk bank.

“I think it's really neat that most of the milk goes to premature babies that really need it,” Kinney said. Her girls were four weeks premature, but were given formula to supplement their own mother's milk while in the neonatal intensive care unit. After learning about all the benefits of mother's milk for premature infants, Kinney said she wishes the hospital had instead given her girls donated mother's milk while in the hospital.

Kinney stored her extra milk in her freezer and delivered it to Children's Hospital — the state's only milk “depot” where women can drop of milk donations.

The donated milk is transferred from Children's Hospital to the milk bank in Texas for pasteurizing, then returned to Oklahoma where it's given to babies like 3-week-old Cason Bailey, who was born 15 weeks early. Bailey's family is from the Dallas area but is staying near Children's Hospital while little Cason grows and gains strength.

“We were told that babies digest mother's milk better,” said Veronica Bailey, Cason's mother. Cason was given his own mother's milk and the Baileys decided to use donated mother's milk rather than formula to supplement Cason's diet.