Prolacta Bioscience neonatologist Dr. Erin Hamilton Spence earns breastfeeding and lactation medicine certification held by fewer than 100 North American physicians

DUARTE, Calif., March 18, 2025 – Prolacta Bioscience, the world’s leading hospital provider of 100% human milk-based nutritional products, announced today that Erin Hamilton Spence, MD, IBCLC, FAAP, FABM, and director of clinical education and professional development at Prolacta, earned board certification in breastfeeding and lactation medicine. This specialized designation from the North American Board of Breastfeeding and Lactation Medicine (NABBLM) is held by fewer than 100 physicians in the United States and Canada.

The board certification enhances Hamilton Spence’s ability to advocate for the critical benefits of breast milk and support Prolacta’s donor community. This prestigious designation recognizes physicians who have met rigorous education, licensure, and practice requirements in breastfeeding and lactation medicine. While often associated with direct lactation care, Hamilton Spence applies her expertise to overseeing Prolacta’s donor risk assessment protocols, one of many steps toward ensuring both quality and safety in Prolacta’s human milk-based nutritional products.

These protocols prioritize the health of donors and their infants in three important ways:

1. Aligning with global health recommendations that donors’ infants are fed exclusively human milk up to 6 months of age through direct communication from their healthcare providers and the donors themselves.
2. Empowering donors to adapt their milk donations through screening protocols that encourage them to voluntarily separate any milk that may have been exposed to illness or medications, ensuring that only eligible milk is used in production while recognizing and valuing the effort involved in producing an excess supply.
3. Providing personalized support throughout the donation process, including guidance on safe milk handling, storage, and delivery, to help donors maintain the highest quality standards.

Prolacta sets the industry standard by voluntarily developing and implementing rigorous safety measures to protect the fragile infants who rely on its human milk-based nutritional fortifiers.

“Prolacta’s donors play a vital role in helping the most vulnerable infants thrive through the power of human milk-based nutrition,” said Hamilton Spence. “These extraordinary donors go beyond nourishing their own babies — they devote time, energy, and care to pump, store, and ship their surplus breast milk, providing life-changing support for medically fragile, preterm and term infants who depend on this critical resource.”

Hamilton Spence is an experienced neonatologist with a demonstrated history of clinical leadership in some of the country’s top neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), including Cook Children’s Medical Center and Baylor Scott & White Health-Andrews Women’s Hospital.  As one of Prolacta’s medical experts, she educates neonatologists and hospital care teams about improving premature infant outcomes through an Exclusive Human Milk Diet (EHMD) for vulnerable infants.

"Dr. Hamilton Spence’s expertise as a neonatologist, lactation consultant, and human milk researcher gives her unique insight into breast milk’s vital role in infant health,” said Scott Elster, CEO of Prolacta. “This new breastfeeding and lactation certification further demonstrates her dedication to supporting families, particularly those with premature and critically ill newborns.”

About Prolacta Bioscience

Prolacta Bioscience^® is a global life sciences company dedicated to Advancing the Science of Human Milk^® to improve health outcomes for critically ill and premature infants. More than 100,000 extremely premature infants worldwide¹ have benefited from Prolacta's human milk-based products, which have been evaluated in more than 30 peer-reviewed clinical studies. Operating the world’s first pharmaceutical-grade human milk processing facilities, Prolacta maintains the industry’s strictest quality and safety standards, with over 20 validated tests for screening and testing human milk. Prolacta's manufacturing process uses vat pasteurization to ensure pathogen inactivation while protecting nutritional composition and bioactivity. Connect with us at X, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Loren Kosmont
Lkosmont@prolacta.com
310.721.9444

References

1. Data on file; estimated number of premature infants fed Prolacta’s products from January 2007 to August 2023.