On World Human Milk Donation Day, which is celebrated today, the São José Local Health Unit (ULS), which includes MAC, states that the Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital Human Milk Bank, created in 2009, "has already fed approximately 3,500 premature babies with a total of 4,900 litres of milk, resulting from the collaboration of 550 volunteer donors who were willing to donate their children's excess food". According to the ULS of São José, the milk, after being analysed and treated, was offered to premature babies admitted to the Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital, Dona Estefânia Hospital, Santa Marta Hospital, Dr. Fernando da Fonseca Hospital and Cascais Hospital. The institution reports that the Human Milk Bank supported 83 donors last year, with the donation of 578 litres of milk, which benefited around 180 newborns. The ULS of São José states that the partnerships with Primary Health Care, namely with ACES Lisboa Ocidental and Oeiras since 2017 and USF Restelo since 2023 (structures now belonging to the ULS of Western Lisbon), "have allowed the process to be solidified and decentralised, with the inclusion of donors in a wider geographical area and closer to the community". The hospital unit emphasises that the use of human milk improves the babies' food tolerance, reducing intestinal complications, systemic infections and deaths, in addition to "also recognising health benefits until adulthood, with better neurological and cognitive development, prevention of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular and immune-allergic diseases". On World Human Milk Donation Day, the Human Milk Bank team "thanks all the donors who have shared their milk over the last 15 years" and appeals for donations from new donors who, with "their gesture, ensure the health of other newborns who are unable to be breastfed by their mothers". The ULS of São José also states that the Human Milk Bank develops actions to promote breastfeeding, train professionals, recruit and support donors, receive, analyse and treat human milk, as well as its storage and distribution to recipients. Read Also: Multidisciplinary MAC team will monitor high-risk pregnant women at home (Portuguese version)