Frequently Asked Questions

  • You can become a donor using the contact form on our donate page, or call us directly at 406-531-2677. Our donor screening process includes four steps:

    1 - Complete a telephone screening

    2 - Fill out a donor application

    3 - Sign consent form for OB

    4 - Submit to a blood test that screens for HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, Syphilis and HTLV

  • The Milk Bank covers all of the costs associated with donating milk. This includes blood draw fees, costs of shipping milk to the milk bank, and even providing milk storage bags when needed. Donors are always welcome to cover their own costs if desired.

  • The MMBMT can accept pumped and stored milk that is up to 9 months old or less. Milk that is more than 10 months old will not be accepted for donation.

  • While we cannot guarantee this, there is a good chance that your breast milk donation is a tax write off. The milk bank can give you a form with the amount of ounces donated (with a monetary value attached to it) that you can take to your accountant.

  • We do not pay milk donors; milk donors are volunteers. Research and history have shown that paying donors adds risks both to the milk recipient and to the baby whose milk is sold. This is a complicated medical and ethical issue that has been discussed, debated, and regulated for millennia, and continues today.

  • The Mothers’ Milk Bank of Montana (MMBMT) is a nonprofit organization. Any profits associated with donor milk allow us to keep our doors open, to pay our staff and to continue to serve our community. Pasteurizing human donor milk requires highly trained staff to communicate with and screen donors, and to safely pasteurize, test, and distribute the milk.

  • The MMBMT set up the Give the Gift of Milk Fund to help offset the cost of human donor milk to low income and financially stressed families. Financial donations to the fund help provide donor milk to families with medical need for breast milk that do not have the resources to pay the $4.50 per ounce processing fee. The milk bank provides donor milk via scholarship and sliding scale depending on the family’s financial situation.