Netcare Ncelisa Human Milk Banks

How does Netcare support breastfeeding?

In line with the World Health Organization (WHO) policy on neonatal nutrition, Netcare supports exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life — particularly for babies in our neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).

Netcare established Ncelisa human milk banks in November 2017, with the goal of providing premature and medically vulnerable babies, who are eligible and cannot receive their own mother’s breast milk, with safe donor breast milk.

Netcare has 35 human milk collection sites (depots) and five milk banks where donated breast milk, including colostrum, is stored and distributed to eligible babies in NICUs in both private and public sector hospitals, free of charge.

Steps to becoming a breast milk donor

Written consent

Give written consent to donate your breast milk.

Screening questionnaire

Complete the screening questionnaire.

Meet the criteria

Meet the criteria for breast milk donation. Netcare Ncelisa will confirm your eligibility to donate.

Read the guidelines

Read the donor education guidelines
and the
guidelines on caring for breast milk expressing equipment.

Expressing and storing

Start expressing and storing your breast milk.

Transport your breast milk

Transport your breast milk to a Ncelisa human milk depot or bank at a Netcare maternity unit.

Want to know more about breast milk?

Breast milk has several properties that assist in preventing possible serious infections in neonates whose own immune systems have not yet fully matured. This is but one of the reasons why breast milk is best for babies.

Why is breast milk best?

How does breast milk differ from formula milk?

Who benefits from donated breast milk?

At Netcare, we strive to always provide you with the best and safest care. We use scientific criteria to measure the quality of our care on an ongoing basis and closely monitor our performance against these measures.

We hold ourselves accountable to our patients and other stakeholders. Netcare is committed to transparency, and we share both our current and past results on this website so you can gain insight into the standard of our care over time.

Explore our quality of care measures and results for feeding newborn babies with donor breast milk.

Explore our measures and results