Maternal child health open house and breast milk depot grand reopening at Champaign-Urbana Public Health District

Maternal child health open house and breast milk depot grand reopening at Champaign-Urbana Public Health District

Champaign, IL: The Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD) is holding an open house on maternal and child health. As part of the event, CUPHD is celebrating the grand re-opening of its breast milk depot and dispensary. The event will be held Tuesday, March 29, 2022 from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. The public is invited to participate in giveaways and light refreshments while learning about services offered by the Division of Maternal and Child Health. Guests will meet staff and have important questions answered.

As a breast milk depot and dispensary with Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes (Milk Bank WGL), CUPHD promotes breastfeeding and supports family nutrition.

“To have a local depot that collects milk for their local milk bank is such an important relationship,” says Amber Barnes, Registered Nurse and Clinical Manager at Milk Bank WGL. “Human milk contains a large number of antibodies, many of which are specific to the mother’s geographic region. Babies get maximum protection as a result. Local antibodies for local babies!”

Healthy, lactating women who have been screened and approved as donors through Milk Bank WGL bring their milk to the depot. All donations are shipped to the milk bank’s processing facility in Elk Grove Village, IL where it is pasteurized to eliminate viruses and bacteria. The pasteurized milk is tested by a third-party lab and distributed to hospitals and outpatients in Illinois and Wisconsin.

CUPHD also serves as a donor milk dispensary where families can purchase pasteurized donor breast milk. In the absence of mother’s own milk, pasteurized donor human milk provides numerous benefits, including infection-fighting factors, growth hormones, improved nutrition, and improved digestion. Donor milk can be used when the mother has a low milk supply, is ill or on certain medications, or in cases of adoption or surrogacy.

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