The Hearts Milk Bank

The Hearts Milk Bank: The bank with a difference

The Hearts Milk Bank is supported by the Human Milk Foundation, to provide the opportunity of being fed with human milk to every baby who could benefit. The project is borne out of a need for donor milk provision support for premature babies in hospital neonatal units and to mothers who are unable to breastfeed.

Milk is donated by volunteers and delivered to the milk bank at Rothamsted, where it is heat-treated to destroy harmful bacteria and viruses. The milk is then checked for contamination by microbiologists, stored in specialised in freezers and delivered to babies in neonatal units across the UK and Ireland.

The Human Milk Foundation became tenants at Rothamsted in October 2018 and is proud to be based at such a world-leading research institute and centre of food security. The state of the art lab space and facilities at provides the opportunity to continue to scale up and develop a range of ground-breaking research programmes into the components of human milk over the course of natural-term lactation and its potential for health, with truly global impact.

Dr. Natalie Shenker (Co-Founder), comments

“Our work and vision fit very well with the Rothamsted aim to provide sustainable solutions for the provision of safe, healthy food for the world and it’s fantastic to be amongst so many like-minded innovators. We work with hospitals and families across the southeast, London, East Anglia and beyond so Rothamsted is geographically well-placed for us and means we can operate more efficiently.”

Useful Links

Website: 
www.heartsmilkbank.org/

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/heartsmilkbank

Instagram:
www.instagram.com/heartsmilkbank/

LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/company/the-herts-milk-bank/

YouTube: 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnFC6Ye7HUQ

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/heartsmilkbank