Breast milk plea to new mothers

Mothers of premature babies may not be well enough to produce milk

New mothers are being urged to donate spare breast milk to Ashford and St Peter's hospitals in Surrey.

They have made the appeal in a bid to keep their milk banks stocked up.

Fragile and premature babies often need donated milk because their mothers are not well enough to produce their own and formula mix is too rich for them.

The hospitals said they were looking for women who were non-smokers, not on long-term medication and who had a baby that was less then six months old.

Milk bank co-ordinator Suzanne Timms said: "There are very many reasons why a baby in our unit will need mother's milk and why their own mother's milk is not available.

"Ours is a busy unit and we need to keep the stocks in our freezer as full as possible."

Anyone who wants to donate breast milk has to have a blood test. There are only 16 similar milk banks in the UK.