Prolacta Bioscience Recognizes Nurses Caring for Fragile Infants Every Day Throughout Neonatal Nurses Week and NICU Awareness Month

Company Provides NICU Nurses With Educational Resources to Help Premature Infants Grow and Thrive

DUARTE, Calif., Sept. 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prolacta Bioscience^®, the world's leading hospital provider of 100% human milk-based nutritional products for critically ill, premature infants, is celebrating National Neonatal Nurse's Week and NICU Awareness Month by recognizing the dedication of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses who work tirelessly to care for the most fragile patients: premature infants.

"NICU nurses work around the clock year-round to provide the best care to the tiniest, most vulnerable patients in the hospital," said Melinda Elliott, MD, chief medical officer at Prolacta. "We celebrate NICU nurses every day, but especially this month, and thank them for helping premature infants grow and thrive with an Exclusive Human Milk Diet including Prolacta's 100% human milk-based fortifiers."

Established by the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) two decades ago, Neonatal Nurses Week 2022 is observed September 12-18 to celebrate the nurses who care for the medically fragile babies in the NICU. The week falls during NICU Awareness Month, which honors families with infants experiencing a stay in the NICU and the health professionals who care for them. 

Throughout Neonatal Nurses Week, Prolacta is recognizing NICU nurses with free educational offerings, such as CE-credited webinars to support the growth and health of premature infants in their care. NICU nurses are encouraged to sign up for the educational resources, latest updates on human milk science, and a word jumble contest at https://page.prolacta.com/nicu-nurse-week-word-jumble. Each day, Prolacta will provide a new resource to support NICU nurses in meeting the health and nutritional needs of premature infants.

"All of us at Prolacta recognize and honor the critical role that NICU nurses play in caring for critically ill, premature infants," said Scott Elster, Prolacta's chief executive officer. "We are grateful for and inspired by their commitment to ensuring these infants receive the highest standard of care possible to give them the best chance at a bright and healthy future."

The major difference between cow milk-based and human milk-based products is the composition — notably, the bioactive components that are unique to human milk. These include immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, milk fat globule membrane, and the wide spectrum of prebiotics known as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which are not easily manufactured and thus are greatly decreased or missing from cow milk-based nutritional products.¹ Bioactivity is thought to support infants' immunity, development, growth, and long-term health.²

Prolacta's 100% human milk-based nutritional products have the highest bioactivity in the human milk industry.³ Prolacta's nutritional products are vat pasteurized using profiles defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure pathogen inactivation and the highest level of safety while retaining as much of the natural bioactivity of the milk as possible.³ Prolacta's vat pasteurized products retain higher bioactivity than products processed using other methods, including retort sterilization and ultra-high-temperature (UHT) processing.^4,5

Prolacta Bioscience^® is a privately held, global life sciences company dedicated to Advancing the Science of Human Milk^® to improve the health of critically ill, premature infants. Prolacta's 100% human milk-based nutritional products have been evaluated in more than 20 clinical studies published in peer-reviewed journals. More than 80,000 premature infants have benefited from Prolacta's nutritional products worldwide to date.⁶ Established in 1999, Prolacta is the world's leading provider of human milk-based nutritional products for hospital use and is also exploring the therapeutic potential of human milk across a wide spectrum of diseases. Prolacta maintains the industry's strictest quality and safety standards for screening, testing, and processing donor human milk. Operating the world's first pharmaceutical-grade human milk processing facilities, Prolacta uses vat pasteurization and a patented, FDA-reviewed manufacturing process to ensure pathogen inactivation while protecting the nutritional composition and bioactivity of its human milk-based products. Prolacta is a global company with headquarters in Duarte, California, and can be found online at www.prolacta.com, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Loren Kosmont
[email protected]m
310-721-9444

References

¹ Ballard O, Morrow AL. Human milk composition: nutrients and bioactive factors. Pediatr Clin North Am. 2013;60(1):49-74. doi:10.1016/j.pcl.2012.10.002 
² Gila-Diaz A, Arribas SM, Algara A, Martín-Cabrejas MA, López de Pablo ÁL, Sáenz de Pipaón M, Ramiro-Cortijo D. A review of bioactive factors in human breastmilk: a focus on prematurity. Nutrients. 2019;11(6):1307. doi:10.3390/nu11061307
³ Internal Data.
⁴ Meredith-Dennis L, Xu G, Goonatilleke E, Lebrilla CB, Underwood MA, Smilowitz JT. Composition and variation of macronutrients, immune proteins, and human milk oligosaccharides in human milk from nonprofit and commercial milk banks. J Hum Lact. 2018;34(1):120-129. doi:10.1177/0890334417710635
⁵ Lima HK, Wagner-Gillespie M, Perrin MT, Fogleman AD. Bacteria and bioactivity in Holder pasteurized and shelf-stable human milk products. Curr Dev Nutr. 2017;1(8):e001438. doi:10.3945/cdn.117.001438 

Estimated number of premature infants fed Prolacta's products from January 2007 to December 2021; data on file.

SOURCE Prolacta Bioscience

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