Milk Banks and Blood Banks: How Collaborations can Work

During 2014, The Milk Bank and the Indiana Blood Center collaborated to make milk donation easier for donor mothers. For NICU babies, donated blood and donated human milk are critical to survival. As The Milk Bank and Indiana Blood Center started conversations, they realized the process of screening donors and providing life saving resources of donor blood and donor milk are very similar. This partnership allows both organizations to be more effective in collecting and distributing life-saving donations.Because of the efficient nature of Indiana Blood Center’s existing infrastructure, the partnership allows The Milk Bank to be more proactive in supplying NICUs with donor milk.  Milk donations are dropped off by donor mothers and placed into freezers located at Blood Center locations in seven Indiana cities.  It is then transported from the Blood Center milk drop off site to the pasteurization facility at The Milk Bank more regularly, making the turnaround time between a donor dropping off donated milk at a depot location and dispending to a hospital more timely.This partnership also gives The Milk Bank a presence in new cities around Indiana. Indiana Blood Center can also provide the blood screening required for potential milk donors going through The Milk Bank approval process.