For the last eight years, the Nini Bambini Maternal Wellness Center has been supporting families from pregnancy through preschool, but in two weeks it will become the first and only place in New Hampshire where women can walk through the doors and donate their breast milk to families in need.
Grace Hoffman turned one month old on Wednesday. She's just a tiny thing who had to spend five days in the NICU because of a breathing problem.
"She was up there before my milk had actually come in and so I couldn't give her any nutrition," explained Grace's mom Heather Hoffman of Goffstown.
Dairy allergies run in their family, so Hoffman turned to donated breast milk for her little girl.
"That was such a weight off of my shoulders to know she could get breast milk, because that's what is best in my mind," Hoffman said.
Women can donate to human milk banks across the country, but right now, there is no convenient way to do so in New Hampshire.
That's where Nini Bambini comes in.
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"Human milk is amazing in it's healing properties and how it support their tiny bodies," said Educational Director, Amy Menec.
By the end of August, the Bedford location will become the very first breast milk depot in the state.
"They collect the milk, and freeze it, and bring it to us to collect and ship it out," Menec said.
A non-profit called Mother's Milk Bank will then screen it and distribute the milk to NICUs across New England.
"To be able to facilitate that is amazing," Menec said.
Saving little lives, like Grace's, and giving moms a special way to give back.
"It's exciting to know that I could give my milk to someone else's baby that was in NICU," Hoffman said.
In order to donate you have to go through a lengthy screening process.
The breast milk depot will open in Bedford on August 23.
