Need milk? Michigan woman donates over 160 gallons of breast milk in SW Michigan

Ember Hough, a mother of two in the village of Lawton, talks about helping feed hundreds of babies in her rural community and beyond.

When she was pregnant in 2022, Ember Hough wanted to be prepared to feed her child consistently, no matter the circumstance. 

“When my daughter was born, I didn’t nurse her at all—I just fed her pumped breast milk,” said Hough. By using a breast pump, Hough found that she was able to produce more breast milk than if she were breastfeeding on demand. 

While Hough hoped to produce a lot of breast milk through pumping, she wasn’t expecting to pump enough milk to fill two freezers in her home in the village of Lawton, a rural community southwest of Kalamazoo. 

“I started to fill up our freezer in the garage, and my husband and I were like, ‘We’re running out of room, what do we do with all of this?’” she said.

After reaching out to her doula, Hough learned that the hospital where she’d given birth to her daughter housed one of around 30 certified breast milk banks in North America: Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank. 

Hough realized she had an incredible opportunity. If she donated breast milk, not only would she be able to free up space in her home, but she’d also be able to help other moms in her area. 

“I reached out to the Milk Bank, and that sort of just started it all,” said Hough. 

Related: Maternity wards are closing in Michigan. This local doctor is looking for solutions

Taking it to the bank

Since opening its doors in 2006, Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank has distributed millions of ounces of breast milk to infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and other maternal health units across Michigan and several locations outside the state. See a video of their facility here.

Manager Lindsay Starks leads an efficient five-person team that processes, bottles, seals, and sends out thousands of ounces of breast milk for laboratory testing each day before shipping it to recipients.

“We serve 23 hospitals in Michigan. Some of those are NICU, and some are mother-baby units,” said Starks, adding that eight hospitals outside of Michigan also receive their donor milk. 

“We ship outside the state if we have the supply because not every state has a milk bank—we’re pretty unique.”

While around 70% of their donor milk goes to inpatient NICUs and hospitals, the rest is donated to those outside the hospital who are still in need. 

For example, The Breast Milk Initiative, a collaboration with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, allows women living with HIV who have delivered infants in Michigan to receive free donor milk from Mothers’ Milk until their baby’s first birthday. 

Complimentary donor milk is also given to babies who have recently lost their mothers.

“If there’s been a maternal death and the baby has been breastfed, we donate at least a month of milk to them,” said Starks. 

Mothers’ Milk is working on a cancer fund with Bronson’s health foundation to donate milk to Michigan families undergoing cancer treatments. 

“We currently are donating to three families across Michigan. They got diagnosed with cancer postpartum while they were actively breastfeeding, so we’re donating milk to them to get them to their breastfeeding goal of the year,” said Starks. 

In 2024, Mothers’ Milk onboarded 444 new donors and received over 379,000 ounces of donated breast milk—the most the organization has ever received.

These folks aren’t donating for personal gain—no financial compensation is provided to individuals who donate breast milk. 

“These moms who have extra milk really just want to make an impact on families who need it—they’re incredible,” said Starks.

Pump it up

After connecting with Starks after her first pregnancy in 2022, Hough was able to donate 19,277 ounces to Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank. But she didn’t stop there.

Since giving birth to her second child in January 2025, Hough has so far donated an additional 2,106 ounces. 

“I still have a pretty big surplus,” said Hough. 

Between her two pregnancies, Hough has donated 21,383 ounces—just over 167 gallons—of her breast milk to the Bronson Mothers’ Milk Bank.

“Our donors are incredible people,” said Starks. 

“We can’t do this work without them.”