(Courtesy of Westchester Medical Center Health Network) Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, New York, has expanded its successful Liquid Gold Preemie Donor Milk Bank to include a rabbinical-certified kosher donor human milk option for families with babies in the hospital’s Regional Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (Regional NICU).
Boriana Parvez, MD, neonatologist and newborn nutrition expert, who founded and directs the Liquid Gold Preemie Donor Milk Bank, spearheaded this initiative to meet the needs of families requiring kosher standards for their newborns.
“Our Liquid Gold Preemie Donor Milk Bank program has been instrumental in reducing cases of necrotizing enterocolitis—the most common and serious intestinal disease among premature babies—by more than 70% at our hospital,” said Dr. Parvez. “Now, we’re excited to extend these benefits to families who observe kosher dietary laws.”
Established in 2019, the Liquid Gold Preemie Donor Milk Bank has provided nearly 1,200 extremely premature babies with human milk, primarily donated by women with babies in the hospital’s Regional NICU. The program serves pre-term babies born at 28 weeks or earlier, weighing less than 2.2 pounds, as well as ill infants. The donor milk for these extreme preemies is procured and processed at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital, ensuring the highest standards of safety and quality.
Many respected organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, consider human breast milk the best nutrition for newborns due to its nutritional components, antioxidants, enzymes, immune properties and active antibodies. For mothers who can’t produce their own milk or can’t produce enough to keep up with a baby’s needs, milk banks can provide human breast milk that meets the highest safety standards and can provide optimal nutrition.
Maintaining Kosher Integrity
The new kosher human milk program, certified under the New Square Kashrus Council, ensures that all donor milk is handled according to the highest kosher standards. Rabbi Aron Jacobsohn, a member of the hospital’s Spiritual Health Services team, provided counsel in designing the kosher donor milk program.
“We’ve worked hard to ensure that every step of the process maintains the utmost kosher integrity,” said Rabbi Jacobsohn. “This program allows us to provide life-saving nutrition to our most vulnerable infants while fully respecting the religious observances of their families.”
Donating mothers are thoroughly screened and verified to be members of the Jewish faith, Sabbath-observant and kosher-compliant. The human milk is pasteurized with a rabbi on-site, who also individually seals each bottle. The seal is only broken in the baby’s room and warmed according to specific guidelines, preserving its kosher status throughout the process.
Meeting Critical Regional NICU Needs
The kosher human milk program has already received 210,000 milliliters (7,100 ounces) of donated milk—roughly the equivalent of 15 cases of water bottles. This expansion makes Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital the only hospital-based
donor human milk bank in New York State for extremely low birthweight babies that also offers a kosher option.
A micro preemie (a baby born before 26 weeks of gestation or weighing less than 1 pound. 12 ounces) typically needs 10 milliliters of milk per feeding—but not all mothers are able to supply enough of their own milk. The kosher human milk bank at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital plays a critical role in supporting these vulnerable babies.
The Regional NICU at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital cares for over 700 neonatal patients each year. Unlike other programs where hospitals must order donor breast milk as needed, the milk bank program at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital ensures the milk is readily available on-site, streamlining the process for families who need donated breast milk immediately for their babies.
WMCHealth invites interested parties to contact Dr. Parvez at [email protected] for more information and to learn who qualifies as a donor.
