About
Spartanburg Medical Center is a designated Milk Depot – an approved drop-off site for human breast milk from volunteer donors in our area. If mothers of babies in our neonatal intensive care unit can’t produce enough milk or are unable to breastfeed for other reasons, we may be able to provide donor milk from South Carolina’s Milk Bank.
Babies at Risk: How Your Milk Helps
Human breast milk offers babies ideal nutrition and health benefits for babies and moms. It may also reduce the risk of SIDS and serious diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Premature and low birth-weight babies are at higher risk, but all babies can get this life-threatening intestinal-tract disease.
How to Donate Breast Milk
You’re likely to qualify to donate breast milk if:
- You’re generally healthy
- You don’t routinely take medications or herbal supplements, with certain exceptions
- You don’t smoke or use illegal drugs
- You’re willing to get a blood test
- You can transport your milk to a depot (drop-off site, like Spartanburg Medical Center)
- You’ll store your breast milk in designated milk-storage bags or approved containers labeled by pump date
If donated milk has been stored properly in a standalone, deep freezer, we can deliver it to a baby within a year of its pump date. If your milk has been stored in a freezer attached to a refrigerator, we can have it delivered to a baby within six months of the pump date.