Chattanooga, TN – Erlanger East Hospital is partnering with Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee to become Erlanger’s second Milk Drop Depot location. This service utilizes hundreds of volunteer Tennessee mothers with extra breast milk to benefit local premature and at-risk infants.
This new location will be a safe collection point for donated human milk before it is sent to Mothers' Milk Bank of Tennessee for processing. With a shortage of Donor Human Milk in the United States, this milk provides life-saving benefits
to premature and at-risk infants.
According to Regina Lockwitz, NICU Nurse Manager at Erlanger East Hospital, “Both of the Neonatal Intensive Care Units at Children's Hospital at Erlanger and Erlanger East Hospital have had a significant increase in use of donor milk this past year. We want to make it as simple as possible for donors by having this additional Milk Drop site for those that live closer to the East Brainerd/Ooltewah area. The additional site will offer donors the convenience of dropping off donations without having to get out of their car.”
Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit milk bank dedicated to providing safe, pasteurized donor human milk to the most vulnerable babies. The organization filters, mixes, bottles, pasteurizes and cultures donated breastmilk from approved donors before distributing the donor milk to neonatal intensive
care units (NICUs) in Tennessee.
The opening of the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee’s 22nd Milk Drop Depot was held on January 30, 2025, at Erlanger East Hospital Building B at 1751 Gunbarrel Road, Chattanooga, TN.
To learn more about donor screening and requirements, please visit milkbanktn.org.
