The milk donor process is being made surprisingly easy and convenient by BayCare's Donor Milk Program. Moms will be able to donate without ever having to leave the comfort of their own homes, and the family doesn't incur any out-of-pocket expenses. The initial screening is done online, certified phlebotomists come to the mother's home, and all of the storage and shipping supplies are sent directly to the mom. Shipment pick-up is then arranged so that the donating mother and her baby won't be burdened by having to drive the shipment coolers anywhere. For many moms this will come as a welcome option, since many struggle with what to do with their extra breast milk, and they will now be able to support premature infants in their greater Tampa Bay Area community, through a process made easy and convenient by Prolacta. 

This partnership model program was first piloted in Texas, and as a result of its success, it is being rolled-out nationally by Prolacta.  BayCare now becomes one of the first in the country to establish a donor milk program through which they are able to guarantee a steady supply of standardized donor breast milk for their own premature infant population in their neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Since human breast milk is highly variable, the standardization is significant because BayCare will now be able to provide donor milk with a precise amount of calories and protein, enabling targeted nutrition to help ensure appropriate growth in preemies. This ability to standardize donor milk now takes the guesswork out of the equation for neonatologists who are attempting to prescribe specific nutrition for fragile preemies.

"We are grateful to partner with BayCare Health System.  Working together, we can ensure this community has a steady supply of standardized, safe, and specially formulated donor breast milk to help optimize growth in their hospitalized preterm infants," said Scott Elster, CEO of Prolacta Bioscience. "We are also pleased to be working in a new community in which we can help address the supply issue that hospitals are facing across the country. As we work with hospitals to help recruit donors, we help them realize that they can look in their own backyards to seek support from their own community."

Prolacta is setting the new standard of safety and quality in human milk collection, standardization and processing, with a pharmaceutical grade manufacturing facility that is the first and only of its kind. Additionally, Prolacta is the only organization that includes a safety combination of DNA matching of mom to milk, testing for drugs and bovine contamination, as well as HIV-1, HCV, and HBV through PCR testing. Like blood, human milk is a biologic; therefore, Prolacta's advanced technology provides for an unmatched and extra margin of safety to protect from any potential transmission of virus or disease. The millions of dollars invested in Prolacta's research, development, and unique state-of-the-art manufacturing facility has not only ensured the safety of its products, but it enabled Prolacta's ability to apply its expertise in nutrition from a biological approach, which has never been done until now. 

As leader in the science of human milk, Prolacta's unmatched technology, safety, and processing is one reason BayCare has chosen Prolacta as its partner to help provide the desired standardized nutrition for their fragile premature infants, and they join together in setting the new standard of nutritional care in the NICU.