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Ms. Bar-Yam said that although there's been a decline in premature births nationally, more medical centers are using donor milk because it's becoming increasingly clear that the nutrition source helps preemies survive and thrive. NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, for instance, is aiming to offer donated mothers' milk to preemies the Spring of 2015. "We know that there are benefits for the low-birth-weight baby," Dr. Martha Caprio, who runs the hospital's NICU, said. "Maternal milk does improve outcomes."

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Breast milk helps lower babies' risk of developing a variety of different conditions, according to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office on Women's Health, including childhood leukemia, type 2 diabetes, asthma and lower respiratory infections.

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Breastfeeding can be especially beneficial for preemies, advocacy group Breastmilk Counts notes, as they are at higher risk for experiencing health complications. In 2012 in the U.S., about 450,000 babies -- roughly one out of every nine infants -- were born prematurely, that is before 37 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Mothers' Milk Bank Northeast is a non-profit community milk bank operating under the guidelines of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA). Their goal is to provide donated, pasteurized human milk to babies in fragile health throughout the Northeastern United States.  Their service to the community includes:

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Numerous studies prove the nutritional and immunologic benefits of human milk and support its use as a preventive treatment for various diseases. Often called "liquid gold" in reference to its golden hue, human milk provides invaluable nutrients, antibodies, and growth factors to nursing babies.

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Women donate milk to MMBNE for a variety of reasons -- some mothers may have excess milk stored and wish to give away what's not needed, while others may have lost a child after freezing milk in advance. But getting those donations into more hospitals can be a lengthy process, according to Bar-Yam. "While MMBNE currently works with about 50 medical centers throughout the East Coast, the group is in talks with about 30 more that are hoping to establish a NICU donor milk program.

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Breast Milk Donation = Sharing Liquid Gold

There are several steps those 30 centers must go through in order to give donor milk to patients. Theresa McCaffrey -- whose daughter was born four months early last summer -- wasn't able to get her baby donated milk because the hospital at which her child was receiving care didn't have a tissue bank license that included breast milk. After transferring hospitals, McCaffrey was able to get a prescription for donated milk, but had to purchase it directly from the milk bank and bring it to the hospital on her own. "If things go according to plan, however, more and more moms will be in luck in the coming months, as more hospitals establish new protocol regarding donated milk. When I first started doing this a few years ago, there was kind of the 'Ew, yuck' factor," Bar-Yam explained,  But, we are moving past that, at least in the medical community."

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