ROGERS, Ark. — A new breast milk donation site is now open at Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas.
The site is the first Northwest Arkansas donation center for the UAMS Milk Bank, which opened in September this year in Little Rock.
Mercy says that the donation center, dubbed the Mercy NWA Milk Depot, is a space that allows women to donate breast milk that will be sent to the UAMS Milk Bank for screening, pasteurization and nutritional analysis before it is sent to hospitals across Arkansas.
A release from the hospital says that the site will help lessen the impact of breast milk shortages across the state.
"The first facility of its kind in Arkansas, the milk bank helps ensure a steady supply of donor breast milk for sick and vulnerable infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) around the state, shortening the time it takes for regional hospitals to receive critical milk supplies and improving outcomes for babies," a release from Mercy NWA said.
While this site is the first milk depot in the Northwest Arkansas area, others have been opened across the state, including in Conway and Stuttgart.
A "Blessing of the Hands" ceremony was scheduled on Dec. 6 to commemorate the opening.
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