Vandalia Health CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital took another step to serve local mothers and their babies by becoming West Virginia’s first breast milk dispensary.
CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital not only accepts breast milk donations but now can provide milk to mothers.
The hospital partners with the Mid-Atlantic Mother’s Milk Bank. Once the milk goes through the proper safety screening, testing and processing it can be shipped back to Charleston, the only dispensary in the state.
Human milk benefits all babies but can be especially critical for medically vulnerable infants. When a mother’s milk isn’t available, milk from donors who undergo thorough screening is the next-best option.
In 2025, CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital became the state’s first breast milk depot. A breast milk depot is a designated site that allows approved donors to easily drop off their frozen breast milk donations. Since the depot opened, CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital has collected over 17,500 ounces of breast milk.
Anyone who may be interested in donating breast milk can learn more about the screening and donation process by visiting https://midatlanticmilkbank.org/donate. To schedule a drop off time, donors should contact the Mid-Atlantic Mother’s Milk Bank (phone: 412-281-4400) or email: info@midatlanticmilkbank.org.
In addition to this initiative, CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital became the first hospital in West Virginia, and was one of the first 10 hospitals nationally, to join CHAMPS (Communities and Hospitals Advancing Maternity Practices) National. It is a hospital-based quality improvement collaborative to improve maternity care practices supportive of breastfeeding.
Additionally, CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital has 17 postpartum nurses who are Certified Breastfeeding Specialists. These nurses have completed additional training to improve bedside breastfeeding support and work alongside our lactation consultants.