SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Prolacta Bioscience®, the first and only company to offer a Human Milk Fortifier (HMF) made from 100 percent human breast milk for critically ill premature infants, is expanding its Utah donor outreach through their Helping Hands Milk Bank (Helping Hands). Utah’s nursing mothers may choose to donate excess breast milk through Helping Hands, to be used to make life-saving, human milk-based nutritional products for extremely premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
“Helping Hands Milk Bank depends on the generosity of healthy donors who produce more milk than their own infants use,” said Scott Elster, CEO of Prolacta Bioscience. “Utah has a high breastfeeding rate, which makes it an ideal place to spread awareness about the opportunity to donate breast milk.”
Utah is often recognized for its healthy population. For example, Utah women have among the lowest rates of death from cancer, particularly colorectal and lung cancer, as well as coronary heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Low percentages of Utah women smoke, have high blood pressure, are obese, or binge drink1. This increases the percentage of donor applicants likely to pass Helping Hands’ thorough prequalification process.
Helping Hands is one of the first virtual milk banks. While some women have access to a limited number of regional milk banks, Helping Hands allows busy mothers to apply online in about 15 minutes and donate milk from the privacy and comfort of home. Helping Hands provides all necessary materials and covers the cost of shipping. The application process (about 2 weeks) requires no donor travel and ensures that mother and infant health come first. Interested donors may learn more and apply at HelpingHandsBank.com.
Despite the overall health of Utah women, the state’s breast cancer rates are on the rise.1 As a result of the correlation2 between breastfeeding and a reduced risk of breast cancer in women, Prolacta Bioscience contributes $1 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® for every ounce of qualified milk collected through Helping Hands. Contributions from Prolacta to Komen for the Cure exceeded $75,000 in the past year.
About Prolacta Bioscience
Prolacta Bioscience, Inc. (www.prolacta.com) is a for-profit life science company dedicated to improving quality of life by Advancing the Science of Human Milk™. Prolacta creates specialty formulations made exclusively from human milk for the nutritional needs of critically ill premature infants in neonatal intensive care units. It is the first and only company to provide a human milk fortifier made from 100% human milk, Prolact+ H2MF. They operate a pharmaceutical grade processing plant and have designed and patented processes that enable them to make their one-of-a-kind life saving products. Prolacta is committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of the most vulnerable infants through world-class research and innovative products.
1 Sources: U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services; CDC
http://www.healthstatus2010.com/owh/chartbook/images/StateProfiles_Chartbook_2011Edition.pdf
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/healthywomen/womenschartbook_aug2004.pdf
2
Source: Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer.
Lancet. 2002 Jul 20;360(9328):1