A local organization that provides breast milk to premature and sick babies is putting out the call for help from nursing mothers to donate.

Northern Star Mothers’ Milk Bank, a community-based program that provides a majority of its donations directly to NICUs, says that it needs more women to come forward to donate.

Janette Festival, who works with the agency, says breast milk is the best thing for babies when they are first born.

“It’s got things like enzymes in it, it’s got vitamins, it’s very easy for those babies to digest that milk.”

Tara Younggren, a breast milk donor with Northern Star, says her daughter Zoey wouldn’t nurse and, instead of letting all that she produced go to waste, she decided to do something about it.

"My husband put me onto it. I was having a rough time breastfeeding and really struggling, so I was pumping continuously to try and get some milk for her. I had all this extra milk and nothing to use it for. He told me about this and I thought ‘why not, sounds great, perfect’.”

She says she’s donated 27 litres of milk, enough for 266 bottles.

But providing that much was a challenge, Younggren says.

“It was a lot of work, a lot of dedication, a lot of missed dinners because I was so committed to making sure she was getting milk and it was important to me.”

Younggren says Northern Star also made the experience so incredible and so easy for her.

“You just come in, you drop off your donation, they are so warm and friendly. I got a tour when I first arrived here. It was great.”

All of the donations that come into Northern Star are sorted, pasteurized and tested before they are sent to NICUs all across the country.

However, she says that as great a donor as moms like Younggren are, their ability to donate breast milk can only go so far.

"Our need is continual. So typically, we have donor moms stay with us and donate for three to four months so there is always a turnover. We’re always reaching out, asking moms if they have excess milk, if they would like to donate to the milk bank.”

Younggren says that her ability to donate has made her feel fantastic too.

“It’s something easy that I could do to make a big impact for a little baby. It makes you feel so good, especially because I wasn’t able to breastfeed, but I was able to pump and there are moms that can’t do either. So being able to do this for them, it’s just doing my part in a big way.”

For more information on the Northern Star Milk Bank, visit their website.

(With files from Stephanie Wiebe)