Shanghai Children’s Hospital is facing a critical shortage of breast milk and is urgently recruiting caring mothers to donate milk.
On the evening of December 7, Shanghai Children’s Hospital announced that with the drop in temperature, the willingness of caring mothers to donate breast milk has significantly decreased. Currently, the hospital’s breast milk inventory is low, with only 20,000 milliliters available, while the daily outflow is around 5,000 milliliters, supporting approximately 40 premature infants. The hospital is urgently recruiting caring mothers to donate breast milk so that more premature babies can receive their first taste of breast milk.
The breast milk bank at Shanghai Children’s Hospital was established on June 5, 2016, and is the first public breast milk bank in the Shanghai area. Since its inception, as of October 2024, the breast milk bank (including caring stations) has accepted donations from 988 donors, totaling 3,848 donations, with the cumulative amount of donated breast milk exceeding 10 million milliliters, about one-third of which was donated on-site. In addition to serving the hospital’s neonatal department, the milk is also provided to affiliated institutions such as the First Maternal and Child Health Hospital, benefiting a total of 3,164 individuals and 41,344 instances.
What are the benefits of breast milk for premature infants? Zhang Ting, the director of the Gastroenterology Department at Shanghai Children’s Hospital, pointed out that breast milk is not only a source of nutrition but also has therapeutic effects. Numerous studies have shown that donor milk feeding can effectively promote the maturation and development of the intestines in premature infants, provide ideal enteral nutrition, facilitate early full gastrointestinal feeding, reduce the need for intravenous nutrition, and significantly lower the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), infectious diseases (including late-onset sepsis), and cardiovascular diseases later in life. It can enhance the disease resistance of premature infants and is one of the most effective ways to improve the survival quality of newborns.
So, which mothers can donate breast milk? The hospital stated that donors must meet blood donation criteria, be in good health, and have good and regular lifestyle habits, such as not smoking, drinking alcohol, consuming tea, or using drugs, having no long-term medication history, and no history of blood product transfusion in the past six months. They must also test negative for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, cytomegalovirus, and syphilis, and be within 10 months postpartum.
Regarding the donation process, the hospital indicated that mothers interested in donating breast milk must first visit the breast milk bank at Shanghai Children’s Hospital to sign an informed consent form and health declaration, complete information registration, undergo blood screening, and perform on-site milk expression for culture and analysis. Once all test results are satisfactory, they can donate regularly. The hospital only accepts frozen milk from donors who are within 10 months postpartum and after the testing date.
