Donor milk dispensary to open Thursday

LEWISTON — Pediatric Associates of Lewiston announces the grand opening of Maine’s first outpatient donor milk dispensary, in partnership with Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast.

The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Thursday at Pediatric Associates of Lewiston, 33 Mollison Way, Lewiston.

Families, health care providers and community members are welcome to attend the family-friendly celebration, which will include a ribbon-cutting ceremony, refreshments and information on receiving and donating milk.

A donor milk dispensary is a community location where a family whose baby has a prescription for donor milk can fill the prescription and take home the milk. Currently, babies at certain Maine hospitals can receive donor milk while hospitalized. However, once a baby leaves the hospital, if the baby still needs milk, the family must order the milk to be shipped overnight from Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast in Newton, Massachusetts.

The milk bank collects milk from mothers who have more milk than their babies need. It screens, pasteurizes and tests the milk. It then dispenses it to babies whose mothers do not have enough milk for them.

Mothers’ Milk Bank Northeast has six milk depots in Maine, but this is the organization’s first milk dispensary in the state.