Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville and Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee Open Milk Drop Depot

5/12/2025

CLARKSVILLE, TN (May 12, 2025) – Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville is pleased to collaborate with Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee to open a Milk Drop Depot at Tennova’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The Milk Drop Depot will provide a convenient place for pre-screened and approved milk donors to donate their frozen milk. Donations received at Tennova will be transported to the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee facility in Murfreesboro. There the organization filters, mixes, bottles, pasteurizes and cultures donated breastmilk from approved donors before distributing the donor milk to NICUs across Tennessee.

“The opening of the Milk Drop Depot at Tennova will allow Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee to better serve donors in the Clarksville area,” said Dr. Diane Attardi, Tennova NICU's medical director. “Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee is the state’s only nonprofit milk bank. The organization relies on support from the entire state to further advance their mission: To serve all the NICU babies in Tennessee in need of human donor milk and support breastfeeding mothers.”

A current milk donor, Clarksvillian Liia Harmeling will no longer need to travel to donate to Mother’s Milk Bank of Tennessee. "I donate because my baby boy, born at 25 weeks, received donor milk from Mother’s Milk Bank of Tennessee while in the NICU. As someone who has traveled to donate milk, it's so great to have a Milk Depot in our community. I encourage others to donate if possible!"

Amy Stokes Painter, Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee's executive director, shared “I applaud the leadership at Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville and Vanderbilt University Medical Center for their collaboration with Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee. Becoming a Milk Drop Depot is a great way to promote the benefits of breastmilk while also providing a great service to donor moms. Their support will allow us to reach more medically fragile babies across Tennessee.”

The NICU at Tennova Healthcare - Clarksville, a Level II neonatal intensive care unit, is overseen by Vanderbilt University Medical Center neonatologists, 24-hour neonatal nurse practitioners and specialty trained Tennova nursing staff. Mothers’ Milk Bank of Tennessee is a nonprofit milk bank dedicated to providing safe, pasteurized donor human milk to the most vulnerable babies. For more information on the organization or donating milk, please visit www.milkbanktn.org.

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