Milkshare Program
Malone Community Center facilitates an informed-consent milk sharing model in Lincoln and Omaha. Our Community Committee and team members include licensed midwives, nurses, International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants, and other skilled breastfeeding specialists. Malone Center is a 501(c)(3) organization funded by tax-deductible financial contributions.
What we do:
Facilitation of human milk sharing consists of an informed screening of donors and storage and distribution of milk, in alignment with international standards and guidelines for the safe sharing of human milk. We provide support for, foster relationships with, and are accountable to milk donors and recipients through a standardized process of:
- Donor health history interviews.
- Donor blood tests for diseases that may be passed through breast milk, including HIV 1&2, HTLV 1&2, syphilis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C.
- Drug screening.
- Screening eligible recipients.
- Triage of donor milk to infants up to 6 months of age; we strive to provide a minimum of 40oz per month to families in need to meet the minimum nutrition and immune support benefits of breastmilk but cannot guarantee we can meet the full need of each family.
- Up-to-date breastfeeding information, safe pumping and milk handling & freezing guidelines and referrals as needed; support for lactation following infant loss and low supply issues.
- Our Milk Mobile delivers within a two-hour radius of Lincoln and Omaha, in Nebraska only.
How we are different:
Malone Center is a unique local collaboration built upon a shared responsibility model for sustainable sharing of human milk. Our current partners include Healthy Blue Nebraska and Frontier Pediatric Care.
Malone Center is not a milk bank. Milk is not pasteurized, homogenized, or tested. Instructions for in-home pasteurization are available to each recipient.
We cannot fulfill emergent needs, donors and recipients are screened in-person and once approved, milk can be delivered M-F 8am-5pm when pre-scheduled with 24 hours’ notice.
Malone Center milk is free to all families, this program does not have any income, education, or race/ethnicity requirements to participate. Families with low milk supply, adopting children, fostering children, or those who do not have the physical anatomy to produce human milk and encouraged to apply.
Malone Center is not informal milk sharing. All donors are screened for a panel of blood tests recommended by the Human Milk Banking Alliance of North America. Donors also complete and sign a written health history and interview assessment.
Malone is a transparent milk sharing model. Malone may accept milk from donors using medications that are compatible with breastfeeding. All milk is identified and tracked, and full disclosure is made to recipients regarding maternal medications. Recipients are informed of and supported in their right to decline any milk. Medical resources consulted include Medications and Mothers’ Milk (Thomas W. Hale, Ph.D.) and LactMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine).
For further information, please submit a donor or recipient application above.