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The Conway Baptist Health Milk Depot and the Stuttgart Baptist Health Milk Depot will support the UAMS Milk Bank.
Image by Andrew Vogler
Baptist Health Opens UAMS Milk Bank Depots in Conway and Stuttgart
| LITTLE ROCK — Baptist Health, in support of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Milk Bank, has opened milk depots at two of its medical centers in Conway and Stuttgart.
The Conway Baptist Health Milk Depot and the Stuttgart Baptist Health Milk Depot are designated spaces for women to donate milk, which will be sent to the UAMS Milk Bank for screening, pasteurization and nutritional analysis. After processing, milk will be sent, according to need, to hospitals throughout Arkansas.
The milk depot in Conway is located in the Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway.
“At Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway, our team is proud to deliver high quality, exceptional care to our patients,” said April Bennett, MSN, CHFP, RN, president of Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway. “Partnering with UAMS to support the Milk Bank will allow us to further that mission and meet the needs of our community, region and state.”
Located in the Monroe Building just off UAMS’ main campus in Little Rock, the UAMS Milk Bank, the first facility of its kind in Arkansas, focuses on the health of mothers and newborns in Arkansas through encouragement and support of breastfeeding. The new milk bank helps ensure a ready supply of donor milk for sick and vulnerable infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) around the state, shortening the time it takes for regional hospitals to receive critical milk supplies and improving outcomes for babies.
“We are very excited that UAMS Milk Bank is able to partner with our community hospitals to provide mothers who want to donate their milk with an easy access point to deposit their pumped milk,” said Misty L. Virmani, M.D., executive medical director of the UAMS Milk Bank, associate professor of pediatrics and neonatology and director of breastfeeding medicine. “Depots like these will increase community and health care provider awareness of the importance of a breastfeeding supportive community to the health of all members of the community.”
Previously, Arkansas hospitals relied on donor milk purchased from milk banks in Texas, Michigan, Illinois and Oklahoma, costing more than $1 million a year. In 2021, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 225 establishing the creation of the milk bank and a special fund to help support the bank.
The milk depot in Stuttgart is located in the Baptist Health Medical Center-Stuttgart.
“Baptist Health is so excited to be partnering with UAMS to help provide breast milk to our Arkansas babies in need,” said Amy Shultz, BSN, RNC-MNN, inpatient nurse manager at Baptist Health Medical Center-Stuttgart. “We believe that our partnership with the UAMS Milk Bank will increase community awareness of the importance of breast milk and lead to an increase in breastfeeding rates in our communities.”
The Conway Baptist Health Milk Depot is located at 1555 Exchange Ave., and is open on Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and can be contacted at (501) 585-2170.
The Stuttgart Baptist Health Milk Depot is located at 1703 N. Buerkle St., and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can be contacted at (870) 674-6425.
For information about how to donate milk to the UAMS Milk Bank, please visit uamshealth.com/uams-milk-bank. To contact the Milk Bank, please call 501-686-5355 or email milkbank@uams.edu.
For more than a century, Baptist Health has delivered All Our Best in health care through Christian compassion and innovative services. Baptist Health is Arkansas’ most comprehensive health care organization with more than 250 points of access that include 11 hospitals; urgent care centers; a senior living community; over 100 primary and specialty care clinics; a college with studies in nursing and allied health; and a graduate residency program. It is also the largest private not-for-profit health care organization based in Arkansas, providing care through the support of approximately 11,000 employees, groundbreaking treatments, renowned physicians and community outreach programs. For more information about Baptist Health, visit Baptist-Health.com, call Baptist Health HealthLine at 1-888-BAPTIST or download the myBaptistHealth app.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###