Mindy Fuzesy presents at Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses 2021 virtual convention

Session Addressed the Importance of Bioactivity in Human Milk-Based Products for Premature and Critically Ill Infants in the NICU

DUARTE, Calif., Oct. 11, 2021 — Prolacta Bioscience^®, the world’s leading hospital provider of 100% human milk-based nutritional products for premature and critically ill infants, announced that Mindy Fuzesy, RNC-NIC, RNC-OB, MSL-BC presented at the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) virtual convention on Sunday, October 10, at 4 p.m. ET. The presentation, titled “Magic in Every Drop: The Bioactivity of Human Milk,” addressed the important role bioactivity plays in the human milk-based products that hospitals use to provide vital nutrition to fragile patients in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs).

“Human milk is more than nutrition for premature and critically ill infants — it is medicine,” said Fuzesy, medical science liaison of neonatal and pediatric nursing at Prolacta. “The bioactive components found in human milk are essential for supporting immunity, development, growth, and the long-term health of premature and critically ill infants.¹ It’s important that we have discussions about how manufacturing processes influence the retention of bioactive components in donor human milk.”

Breast milk naturally contains bioactive components that are critical for infants’ health.¹ However, once the milk is processed and/or pasteurized to ensure safety, bioactivity is impacted.^2,3 Some human milk processing methods, such as Prolacta’s patented vat pasteurization process, retain more of the natural bioactivity of the milk than other processes.^2,3,4 This yields donor human milk and donor milk products that more closely reflect mother’s own milk.^3,4

Each year, the AWHONN convention brings together the leaders in the fields of women’s health, obstetrics, and neonatology to discuss emerging research and topics to advance learning and education in their fields. To learn more, please visit https://www.awhonnconvention.org/.

About Prolacta Bioscience

Prolacta Bioscience^® Inc. is a privately held, global life sciences company dedicated to Advancing the Science of Human Milk^® to improve the health of premature and critically ill 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 70,000 premature infants have benefited from Prolacta’s nutritional products worldwide to date.⁵ 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 human donor 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.

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Media Contact:
Loren Kosmont
Lkosmont@prolacta.com
310-721-9444

References

1. 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. Internal Data
5. Estimated number of premature infants fed Prolacta’s products from January 2007 to May 2021; data on file.