Donating milk

Taking the time to become a milk donor is an amazing step. You could be changing the lives of another baby and their family forever.

Becoming a milk donor is similar to becoming a blood donor. Relatively few things would prevent you becoming a milk donor, but we cannot accept donations if you are smoking, vaping or using nicotine replacement products.

  • You will need to complete a questionnaire, which we can send over by email or post. We can also post out forms and information to you if you prefer. The questionnaire includes questions about any recent overseas travel and about your medical history, as well as your baby’s health and how you are expressing milk.
  • Please contact the milk bank by phone (01582 314 130/1, between 9.30 am and 5 pm) or by email (info@heartsmilkbank.org), if you would like us to guide you through the process.
  • Once we have checked through your forms, we will send you a consent form that can be signed electronically. We will post out a kit that contains everything you will need for blood tests to be taken. These can be arranged at your GP or local phlebotomy centre, wherever you usually access blood tests. We are required by national guidelines to test all donors for HIV1 and 2, hepatitis B and C, syphilis and human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV). These are all infections  that we can have without knowing and which may get into breastmilk. You can read more about these infectious diseases and the screening process here .
  • The blood results take about 7- 10 working days to come back from our partner NHS laboratory. Once we have your results, we will send you instructions on how to arrange your first collection.
  • Every container (bag or bottle) of milk for donation will need to be labelled with your name or unique Hearts Milk Bank donor ID number, the date it was expressed and details of any medications taken within the previous 24 hours.
  • If anything changes, you need to take a new medication or move house, or would like to stop donating, please get in touch with the Hearts team.

All of our processes are in line with the NICE Clinical Guideline #93 for the Operation of a Human Milk Bank and we are passionate about supporting research to understand optimal donor support, donor milk processing, and use of donor milk.

Which areas do we cover?

The Hearts Milk bank is working towards making it possible to donate your milk to us regardless of where you are based, and we currently have milk hubs in Norfolk, Kent, the East Midlands and South Wales, with plans for other regions in the near future. You can find out more about our hubs here.

We can currently accept donors from the following regions:

Always check if there is a more local NHS milk bank through the UK Association for Milk Banking’s website (www.ukamb.org/milk-banks). Other milk banks have slightly different recruitment criteria around the age of your baby and medications that can be accepted, so please get back to us if you are not eligible elsewhere.

If you would like to become a milk donor, please email us info@heartsmilkbank.org or call 01582 314 130 / 1.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can I donate if I am not exclusively breastfeeding? You and your baby come first. We are only able to accept milk that is truly surplus to your baby's needs. If you are mixed breast and formula feeding or if your baby has been diagnosed with cow’s milk protein allergy or other food intolerance, please contact the milk bank team for advice.
  • I smoke or live in a house with a smoker. Can I still donate? We are unable to accept donations if you are smoking or using any nicotine replacement products or if your partner or other household member smokes in the house. However, we recommend that you don’t stop breastfeeding your own baby because the recommendations for milk donors are very different from those when breastfeeding your own baby. Please contact the milk bank team if you would like more advice. If you do smoke, you would be very welcome to join a research study run in collaboration with Imperial College London that is helping scientists understand better ways to screen women for cancer.
  • I am regularly taking medication. Can I donate? Some medications may exclude you from donating milk for preterm or sick infants, even though they are safe to take when breastfeeding your own baby. Please contact us to discuss, as some of these medications may be acceptable for donation for full term or older babies.
  • Can you accept a stash of previously expressed milk? Yes we can. Please note that it must have been expressed into sterile bags or other suitable containers within the last 3 months. Expressed milk needs to have been refrigerated immediately and then frozen within 24 hours of being expressed. We will ask you some questions about the time when you were expressing the milk and we will also need each container to be labelled.
  • My pump is second-hand. Can I still donate? We are unable to accept milk expressed with a second-hand pump unless it is hospital grade. This is because a normal second-hand pump may contain micro-organisms and biofilms from the previous owner that cannot be easily removed via cleaning as these can get inside the pump casing. Hospital grade pumps are cleaned between users and contain special valves to ensure that no micro-organisms can enter the pump casing.
  • Will expressing milk give me an even bigger oversupply? If you already have more milk than your baby needs and don’t want to increase your supply even more or would like to reduce your over supply, our expert lactation consultants will help you manage your supply so that it fits in with you and your baby and donating amounts daily that are best for you.
  • I have had a blood transfusion. Will this stop me from being able to donate? If you have had a blood transfusion in the last 4 months your blood tests may need to be delayed. However, you can still collect and store milk for donation in the meantime. Please contact the milk bank team for more advice.
  • Is there a minimum amount I need to donate? We ask for a minimum of 2 litres expressed within 8 – 9 weeks from our ongoing donors. This is to allow us time to arrange a collection of your milk and pasteurise it within 3 months, in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline. If your frozen milk is older than this please contact us to discuss.
  • My baby is older than 6 months. Can I still donate? Yes. We have no upper age limit for the babies of milk donors, and all milk is precious to the families whose babies receive it. However we recommend that if you have not become a donor by the time your baby is approaching their second birthday, it is best not to start. This is because it can be very difficult to maintain a supply once your toddler is over 2 years old, and some of the key elements of milk can start to reduce after 48 months.
  • What happens when the milk reaches the milk bank? Donated milk is tested for bacteria and pasteurized to kill any bacteria or viruses. It is then checked by the laboratory again for any contamination, and stored in a temperature-monitored freezer. It will then be couriered while still frozen to one of the hospital neonatal units we supply. You can watch the journey of donated milk in this short film.
  • Why is the milk heat-treated? The HMB adheres to guidelines developed in 2010 by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) regarding the screening, processing, and dispensing of donor milk to ensure its safety. Donor milk is specially heat-treated to destroy harmful bacteria or viruses. This process, called pasteurisation, heats milk very quickly to 62.5C before rapidly cooling the milk to limit the destruction of the health promoting components in the donated milk. Around 70% of the antibodies in the milk will usually survive and be functional to help the baby fight infections; all of the special sugars called oligosaccharides are preserved and functional after pasteurisation, which helps support the development of the gut, microbiome and immune system. As well as providing nutrition, human milk contains hundreds of other components that help the brain to develop, the baby to grow normally, and the immune system to develop. Heat treatment does not appear to markedly affect the nutritional quality of milk, and a study on full term babies fed with donor milk from the Hearts Milk Bank showed all babies grew as expected.
  • Can donor milk be used for full-term babies? Yes. The HMB aims to recruit enough donors and process enough milk to enable other patient groups to benefit when their mother’s own milk is not available. These include babies who have undergone bowel or cardiac surgery, those who have mothers undergoing chemotherapy or with illnesses that can make breastfeeding impossible, and babies with terminal conditions who cannot tolerate other food. Donor milk can also be used as a bridge to support infants while their mothers establish a full milk supply.
  • Will I be paid for my milk? In common with non-profit milk banking and blood and tissue donation worldwide, we don’t offer payments for milk. If you need reimbursing for parking or travel to have your bloods taken, or if you need a breast pump, please let us know as we can provide a manual pump.

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