News Summary

There are good people in this world.

Then there are people like the women of the Mothers' Milk Bank of Ohio.

The bank pasteurizes and provides breast milk to premature babies — breast milk that has been selflessly donated by mothers who want to make a difference in the lives of tiny, helpless individuals.

A nonprofit organization that got its start with the blessing of Grant Medical Center in 2004, it's now housed in a former hospital pharmacy located in the basement of a medical facility in Columbus' Victorian Village.

The bank is one of only 11 in North America.

Breast-milk donations come from as far as Wisconsin.

The milk bank will soon mark its 750th donor, 8 percent of whom are bereaved mothers.

Leslie McKee is one.

McKee lost her son Aiden just 36 hours after his traumatic birth.

There was no question in her mind, that donating her breast milk is what she wanted to do.

For three months she pumped breast milk for that purpose.

"I was searching for meaning for his life," said McKee, who likens her motivation for donating breast milk to the motivation of families who donated their loved one's organs after death.

"I was still doing good in Aiden's name."

Inside the corridors of the Mothers' Milk Bank of Ohio, are scrapbooks, each page designed by a donor mother bearing pictures of beautiful babies and their stories.

Some babies are healthy, thriving, their mother's wanting to help another not so fortunate.

Other babies appear too small to survive, their dates of birth followed by the dates of their passing.

On one page a real footprint is so small that I am able to cover it entirely with the pad of my thumb. It belonged to a triplet who passed away along with his siblings.

"It's OK to cry," I am told by nurse Diane Bates. "We all do."

There is no question that the trend back to nursing babies is well under way with support groups like La Leche League and hospitals providing lactation consultants. But, for various reasons, it isn't always possible for a mother to do so.

So the Children's Medical Center of Dayton keeps about 500 bottles of donated breast milk available in its neonatal intensive care unit.

"They (donor mothers) do this out of the goodness of their heart, they are willing to do the extra work," said Mari Jo Rosenbauer, nurse and lactation consultant.

Rosenbauer said she knows of no case of a baby contracting anything from the milk.

"It (breast milk) is such a benefit, no matter the age of the baby."

Bates clued me in, that there have been requests for the donor milk for cancer patients unable to digest food and for patients with skin conditions who use the milk as a topical ointment.

Both have come back to request additional bottles of milk, leading Bates to believe breast milk is beneficial regardless of your age.

McKee is sure it's beneficial for grieving mothers.

"I can't imagine not having the opportunity to do this," she said. "There is no better way to honor your child."

Kudos to you, Leslie, and all of the other moms who have pumped their hearts out and bottled a little love for the sake of another mother's precious child.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0356 or dmjordan@coxohio.com.