About us
Rotary Community Breast Milk Bank Charitable Trust Inc.
The Rotary Community Breast Milk Bank Charitable Trust Inc. is an initiative supported by the Rotary Clubs of Garden City, Christchurch, Papanui and Riccarton. We are very grateful to St George’s Hospital who have given us fabulous rooms for the milk bank situated on level one at St George’s Hospital. We are very appreciative of all the support St George’s gives us.
Our aim is to work with midwives and women in the community to provide easily accessible donor breast milk to babies who need a short-term gift of donor milk. We hope to ensure that all babies in need can have access to pasteurised donor milk for at least the first six weeks of life, in the hope that this will support the mother to continue to exclusively breastfeed her baby for a longer duration.
The Rotary Milk Bank is open 5 days a week Monday to Friday 1130am-130pm, except Wednesday’s when we are open 1230pm-230pm, to receive donor milk and to dispense it once it has been pasteurised and tested. The Milk Bank is staffed by volunteers. If you wish to volunteer, please contact The Rotary Community Milk Bank on 03-3756281. Please leave a message, the answer machine will be cleared on a daily basis. We fundraise for all running costs, no one is paid, everyone volunteers their time.
Midwives if you have women in the hospital post-natal ward using pasteurised donor milk and you think they will have a need following discharge home, you can leave a message and we will be in contact.
Women intending to become donors will need to complete a health/ lifestyle questionnaire and be given a form for HIV, HEP B and C, HTLV1&2 (Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus) blood tests. They will be required to agree to their first ante-natal blood sample results to be accessed. These tests are funded by the Rotary Community Breastmilk Bank. Donors are supplied with the necessary equipment to be donors.
Without the generosity of the women who donate their breastmilk and our volunteers we could not provide this valuable service which supports the long-term health of the infant.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Yvonne Hiskemuller Chair Rotary Community Breast Milk Bank Charitable Trust Inc.