Rhode Island launches 1st human donor milk program to combat baby formula shortage

WARWICK, RI — Kent Hospital’s Women’s Care Center has launched Rhode Island’s first pasteurized human milk program.

The goal is to provide breastfeeding families an option to supplement breast milk through the program, which opens against a backdrop of a shortage of baby formula in the US, the Providence Journal reported.

“Kent Hospital’s commitment to a pasteurized donor human milk program, as a bridge to exclusive breastfeeding, will help our postpartum mothers achieve their breastfeeding goals, and ensure that our babies get off to their best start,” said Susan Bryant, lactation consultant at the Women’s Care Center,

The milk is provided by the Newton, Massachusetts-based Mother’s Milk Bank Northeast. Donor milk can be shipped to the bank or dropped off at one of several depots.