It all started with one baby in need, a pediatrician, and a few local donors
Founded in 1974 by Maria Teresa (Teresa) Asquith, Mothers’ Milk Bank California is the oldest operating non profit milk bank in the United States. We were established to meet a critical demand: providing human milk for premature infants with fragile medical needs. While working as a transplant technician in the tissue bank at the Institute for Medical Research at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, Asquith got a call from a pediatrician in Los Gatos, CA, whose infant patient was suffering from malabsorption syndrome. She quickly banded together local donors to donate their milk for the sick patient. The baby survived, and Mother’s Milk Bank was born. We started to welcome local milk donors into our modest trailer with an open-door policy and soon became a space where mothers and their children gathered to drop off milk, socialize, volunteer their time, and build community.
During the global HIV and AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, when human milk banks across the country were shutting down because of the public’s fear of disease transmission through human donor milk, Mothers’ Milk Bank California saw both supply and demand fall to their lowest levels in milk bank history, but continued to operate beyond the industry facing so much threat. Together with the Center for Disease Control (CDC), we helped assuage physicians’ and patients’ fears about disease transmission via donor milk. The Human Milk Bank of North American (HMBANA) instituted routine HIV screening for donors in 1990, and no cases of infection among donor milk recipients ever emerged. An enormous resurgence in supply and demand for human donor milk, both at Mothers’ Milk Bank California and worldwide, happened soon after.
When the coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2020 and there was even more urgent need for donor milk to protect babies against the virus, we continued to uphold our strict procedures and regulations to get safe milk to the mouths of those who needed it, making modifications to maintain a safe environment for our staff and community. In a rapidly evolving public health crisis, we supported healthcare providers and families with access to evidence-based information about the protective health benefits of human milk.
The pandemic, related supply chain issues, along with the recent formula shortages and safety recalls have all called attention to the importance of making lifesaving human milk accessible and available to all.
Now, decades after our humble beginnings in a mobile trailer, Mothers’ Milk Bank California continues to advance the industry and routinely distribute more than one million ounces of donor milk annually to hospitals and families across the country. As a charter member of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), we have helped set the gold standard for the operation of milk banking organizations nationwide. With 11 collection centers and an expansive list of community partners, we now accept donor milk from every state.
As medical practices and attitudes have continued to grow in favor of human milk, and as rates of premature survival improve with new medical advancements, we are committed to safely and effectively obtaining, pasteurizing, and dispensing human donor milk for use in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), medical facilities, and homes, and continue to be a vital resource for infants and families in need nationwide.
