Austin neonatologist Dr. Sonny Rivera remembers the baby who started it all. Born two months early, this tiny baby boy lost two-thirds of his intestines due to complications because his mother could not provide him breast milk. Seeing this sick baby, another mom who had an ample supply of milk, offered to donate hers.
“I had to tell her no, though I felt sure breast milk was what this baby needed, because we didn’t have a way to test or pasteurize her milk.”
“After two weeks of this baby in trouble, I was going crazy. The one baby you always remember is the one you didn’t save.”
In 1999, after reviewing massive amounts of data confirming their own experience in the NICU, Dr. Rivera along with the late Dr. George Sharpe, decided to start the Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin (MMBA), a community resource to improve the survival rate of premature and ill infants.
Today, Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin is a nonprofit organization which carefully screens donor mothers, accepts milk donations, and then pasteurizes and dispenses donor human milk by physician prescription to premature and ill infants. We also work to educate the medical community about the benefits of donor milk. In addition, by recruiting and supporting donor mothers we encourage breastfeeding. We are the second largest milk bank in the U.S. and one of the largest in the world.
Our Mission
To accept, pasteurize and dispense donor human milk by physician prescription primarily to premature and ill infants.
Our Vision
The Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin will be a leader in advancing the use of donor human milk to improve the quality of human life.
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