Become a Milk Donor

Our donors are our bedrock - without their dedication and selflessness we couldn't do what we do!

What Donors Do:

Donors collect their surplus breast milk and donate it to Whāngai Ora Milk Bank.

How to Become a Donor:

We ask all of our donors to undergo a blood test and complete a health and lifestyle screening questionnaire to ensure the safety of the milk. These blood tests are free for our donors.

Donors' Privacy

Donors' privacy is very important to us, therefore they remain anonymous to the recipients of their donated milk.

Support

There is an optional Private Facebook group for our donors to communicate and receive ongoing support.

Would you like to donate?

Do you have surplus breast milk that you would like to help babies in need?

If so, please contact us.

More information about the process of becoming a Donor:

If you have time and milk to share, please consider becoming a Whāngai Ora Milk Bank Donor. The process is simple.

Send through an enquiry via our contact form.
We will contact you to make an appointment with us to go through the lifestyle screening form (as you would at the blood bank) and discuss some important details.
If expressing is already going well for you, we will provide you with a referral for a free blood test to screen for blood-borne illnesses. If you haven't tried expressing, please see how long it takes you to store a litre of milk before going for the tests, so we can see if donating milk will fit into your lifestyle. If this takes you several weeks, donation is probably not going to work for you or the milk bank. Our funding for blood tests is very limited, though generously subsidised by Medlabs. Smaller volumes, which are still extremely valuable, can be offered on a milk sharing site for older babies, eg Milk Sharing Manawatu.
A typical donor provides 3 to 15 litres over the donating period, but we will also accept a one-off stash of no less than 2750 mls (the size of our pasteurising batch). We do not put a lower limit on milk volumes received from a bereaved parent in memory of their precious angel baby.
If your results come back clear, then you can be registered as a Donor. You will be assigned a unique donor code and your milk can be pasteurised and distributed to pēpi in need.
We provide information around hygiene and safety of milk handling for donors.
We will arrange times together for either us to collect from you or you to drop off your milk to us.
We supply you with containers for milk collection.
We have a private Facebook Group for our valued donors, which we encourage you to join - to communicate with us and to join our supportive community of amazing wāhine toa providing their milk to pēpi in need.