Hope in every ounce for UTMB Health NICU babies

For the tiniest babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), human milk can be more than nourishment. It can play an important role in helping vulnerable newborns grow stronger, avoid complications, and eventually go home.

That is why Julia Scribner, RNC-MNN, IBCLC, wanted to make it easier for mothers in the community to donate extra breast milk to medically fragile babies in the NICU. A registered nurse certified in maternal newborn nursing at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB Health) since 2001, Scribner has spent much of her career caring for mothers and babies. She became an international board-certified lactation consultant 16 years ago and later championed efforts to create a lactation consultant dedicated specifically to mothers and babies in the NICU.

Then she noticed another opportunity to help.

UTMB Health was already using pasteurized donor human milk to feed its most fragile babies, including micropreemies. But Scribner had seen mothers with an oversupply of breast milk struggle to find a way to donate it, particularly if they lived outside Galveston. Sometimes, milk that could have helped another baby was simply discarded.

"I saw that happen and thought, 'Why aren't we a drop-off location center?'" Scribner said.

Last year, UTMB Health became a community drop-off site for the Austin Milk Bank, giving mothers a convenient place to donate milk without having to travel elsewhere.

The process is simple. Mothers first complete the milk bank's screening process, which includes a blood test. Once approved, they receive a donor number. They can then bring their frozen milk to UTMB Health, where it is stored in a dedicated freezer until a courier transports it to the Austin Milk Bank for processing and pasteurization. The milk is then distributed to NICUs, including UTMB Health, for babies who need it.

Mothers do not have to be patients to donate. They simply need to complete the milk bank's donor screening process.

In its first year, the effort has made a significant impact. UTMB Health mothers and community donors have contributed about 6,700 ounces of breast milk, which have been sent to the Austin Milk Bank. Scribner estimates that could represent roughly 20,000 feedings for babies.

"Look at us go," she said. "We helped make this possible."

Support for the tiniest patients

For a micropreemie, human milk is of the utmost importance. Breast milk contains antibodies, human proteins, and other components that are uniquely suited to an infant's developing digestive system. A mother's own milk is the preferred source, but when it is not available in sufficient quantities, pasteurized donor human milk can provide an important alternative.

For the smallest babies, formula may not be an option.

One of the most serious complications facing premature infants is necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC, a potentially life-threatening disease in which intestinal tissue becomes inflamed and can begin to die. In very premature infants, human milk is associated with a significantly lower risk of NEC than formula.

For Scribner, that makes every ounce donated by another mother meaningful.

"This helps save babies' lives," she said.

Some of the milk donated through the UTMB Health drop-off program comes from mothers who have never been patients at the hospital. They simply want to help another family.

Others have a personal connection to the NICU.

One mother whose baby had been treated in the UTMB Health NICU had more milk than she needed. She didn't want it to go to waste.

"She had more milk than she could take home," Scribner said. "She became a donor."

Now, instead of having to transport the milk somewhere else, she can bring it to the hospital, where Scribner and the NICU team handle the logistics.

Giving made easier

There are currently about 10 donors who bring donations to the UTMB Health drop-off location, Scribner said, including university employees and mothers from the surrounding community.

That is exactly what Scribner hoped would happen when she first proposed the idea.

The drop-off location occupies a relatively small area. A freezer in the NICU quietly collects donated milk until it can be transported to the milk bank.

But its impact reaches far beyond that room.

For Scribner, the work is a natural extension of a career devoted to helping babies get the best possible start.

"I've been a nurse at UTMB Health for a long time," she said. "I will never leave our nursery. I love it."