Donor breast milk has long been a staple of Neonatal Intensive Care Units to provide premature infants with the “next best thing” to mother’s milk. For many of the reasons donor breast milk is beneficial to premature infants, it is also beneficial to term infants. There are several challenges to utilizing donor breast milk in the Newborn Nursery population but Duke Regional Hospital has managed to successfully overcome them. Laura Zamora, an RN in Duke’s Lactation Services outlines the workflow surrounding management of donor breast milk and how it is utilized to supplement hypoglycemic infants in the Newborn Nursery at Duke Regional in a recorded presentation that you can find here. They have fully embraced that “breast is best” and provided donor breast milk as an option for all of their infants who need it.
