by Joyce Slaton posted in Products & Prizes

It's pretty easy to find information on donating breast milk. If you have an oversupply that you'd like to donate, chances are your state's bank has a site that explains exactly how to become a donor (your doctor's approval, paperwork, and a blood test is involved), and how to safely get your donations to the bank (think: freezer).
But what happens between the time your milk gets to the bank and when it's being fed to a hungry baby" What processes do milk banks go through to make sure the milk is safe" And how does it get from the bank to the babies who need it"
We spoke with Katherine Wood, the Program Director of Mothers' Milk Bank of Alabama in Birmingham, who explained the process to us.
1. Milk delivery: After potential donors are carefully screened and have a blood test to check for HIV, syphilis, hepatitis, and human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV), they're given instructions on how to pass donations on to the bank.
In the case of the Mothers' Milk Bank of Alabama, Wood says "We have depots across the state, and moms drop off their donations at the depot local to them, and the depot ships to us. If they're not local, we pay for the milk to be shipped to us." Since milk is perishable, it's sent frozen and overnighted in an insulated box.
Most donors are moms who simply have an oversupply, says Wood, or who discover their child has a milk protein allergy and cannot breastfeed. But some donors are ...