What Is Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas?

Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas is a nonprofit organization founded in 2004 and located in southwest Fort Worth near Benbrook. It provides pasteurized donor human milk to fragile infants when their own mother's milk is not available, and it also offers free breastfeeding support and a way for nursing mothers to donate milk. If you are a parent or hospital seeking donor milk, or a mother interested in donating, this is the organization's central purpose.

What the organization does

The milk bank serves as a bridge between mothers who have extra breastmilk and infants who need it. Its work centers on three activities:

• Receiving donated milk from approved donors
• Pasteurizing and dispensing that milk to fragile infants
• Providing lactation support to families

The milk is intended for babies whose own mother's milk is not available — a situation that arises most often in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) and with premature or medically fragile infants.

Scale and track record

The organization publishes running totals of its impact, which give a sense of how established it is:

These numbers reflect more than two decades of operation and a donor base in the thousands. The August dispensing figure shows the bank is actively distributing milk, not just accumulating it.

Who it serves

Two broad groups interact with the milk bank:

Families who need milk. If a mother cannot produce enough milk or cannot produce it at all — common with very premature births or certain medical situations — pasteurized donor milk can serve as an alternative. The bank's stated focus is on "fragile infants," and its reach is described as across North Texas.

Mothers who want to donate. Nursing mothers with surplus milk can apply to become approved donors. The bank reports over 17,000 approved donors since it opened, so the screening and donation process is well established.

How to get started

The website organizes its main actions around three entry points: Donate Milk, Receive Milk, and Lactation Support. Which one applies to you depends on your situation:

• If you have extra milk and want to help, start with the donation path.
• If you need milk for an infant, start with the receive-milk path.
• If you need help with breastfeeding itself, the lactation support resources are separate from the milk distribution process.

Because eligibility, screening requirements, and distribution procedures can change, check the current pages for each path rather than relying on general descriptions. The site also maintains a blog with first-person accounts from NICU mothers who later became donors, which can give you a realistic sense of what the process involves.

The bottom line

Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas is a Fort Worth–based nonprofit that has dispensed over 10 million ounces of pasteurized donor human milk since 2004, supported by more than 17,000 approved donors. It exists for fragile infants who cannot get their own mother's milk, and it pairs that mission with free breastfeeding support and an open donation pathway. If you are deciding whether to donate or to seek milk, the site's three main sections — Donate Milk, Receive Milk, and Lactation Support — are the right places to start.