Milk Drunk Club × Milkify Medical
Every Drop Matters.
Supporting mothers. Nourishing vulnerable babies.
Milk Drunk Club has partnered with Milkify Medical to help more families access MOM Fortification — a medically supervised program that uses a mother’s own freeze-dried milk to give her baby’s feeds a little more. And through the MilkHaven Family Scholarship, every MilkHaven purchase helps carry some of that cost for a family who needs it.
A partnership between Milk Drunk Club · Milkify Medical · Houston, Texas
Why This Matters
I have sat with these mothers for twenty years.
I’m Shannon Pratten — a registered nurse who has spent more than twenty years in the NICU, and an IBCLC for nearly fourteen of them. Milk Drunk Club began at those bedsides.
In the NICU, you meet mothers in one of the hardest seasons of their lives. Their babies are small, or fragile, or working through something no parent plans for — and still, these mothers show up. They pump around the clock, through exhaustion and worry, because their milk is the one thing only they can give. I have watched mothers label ounce after ounce of milk like it was gold. Because to them, it is.
Every so often, a baby needs more than milk alone can provide — a few more calories in every feed to grow the way their care team hopes. What moved me about Milkify Medical is that their answer starts with the mother’s own milk, not a replacement for it. That respect for the mother–baby connection is the same belief Milk Drunk Club was built on: mothers and babies deserve care that recognizes how deeply they belong to each other.
“Your breast milk isn’t disposable. Neither is the mother who makes it — or the baby who needs it.”
Specialized care like this shouldn’t depend on whether a family can absorb one more bill in the middle of a medical crisis. That is why this partnership exists, and why the MilkHaven Family Scholarship matters so much to me personally.
Shannon Pratten RN, IBCLC · Founder, Milk Drunk Club
MOM Fortification
When mother’s milk needs a little more
Mother’s milk is remarkable — and sometimes, on its own, it isn’t quite enough for a baby with extra medical needs.
Some infants need more calories or nutrients in each feed than expressed breast milk typically provides, so their care teams fortify it — adding nutrition to the milk to support that baby’s individual growth. Until recently, fortification usually meant adding a product made from something other than the mother’s own milk.
Milkify Medical’s MOM Fortification takes a different approach. A portion of a mother’s own expressed milk is freeze-dried into a powder, and that powder is mixed back into her milk to gently raise its caloric density. Nothing replaces her milk, and none of it is displaced — the feed stays entirely her own.
Because every mother’s milk is a little different, Milkify measures it. Using the Miris Human Milk Analyzer (FDA-cleared), they analyze the macronutrients in each mother’s milk and in her powder, then create individualized mixing instructions for her baby. The whole process is guided case by case, in collaboration with the infant’s own healthcare team.
Who the program may be considered for
- Late preterm and other medically complex infants
- Some surgical infants, and infants with congenital heart conditions
- Infants with feeding intolerance or cow’s milk protein allergy
- Infants with faltering weight who need more from each feed
- Families who prefer an all-breast-milk diet, under their provider’s guidance
The Process
How Milkify Medical works
From a mother’s freezer to her baby’s bottle, every step is tracked, measured, and supervised. Here is the journey her milk takes.
A conversation first
Milkify’s medical director consults with the family to understand the baby’s clinical picture, and coordinates directly with the baby’s own care team.
Milk travels frozen
The mother’s frozen milk is shipped to Milkify’s FDA-registered, cGMP-certified facility in Houston. Each bag carries a unique client ID — and the milk is never thawed before processing.
Freeze-dried, contact-free
With Milkify’s patented SafeDry™ process, milk is freeze-dried inside its own sealed pouch — it never touches equipment, trays, or utensils. Each mother’s milk is handled separately, never pooled, and packaged in ISO 5 cleanroom conditions.
Measured, then guided home
Milk and powder samples are analyzed for macronutrients. Individualized fortification instructions go to the family and their provider, with ongoing clinical check-ins as the baby grows.
Milkify Medical reports that more than 250 high-risk infants have been enrolled in MOM Fortification, and that its freeze-drying services have supported more than 17,000 infants and over 6 million ounces of breast milk. A case report describing the approach was published by members of Milkify’s clinical team (Ward et al., American Journal of Perinatology Reports, 2026). Every family’s situation is different — which is exactly why the program begins with a clinical consultation.
The MilkHaven Family Scholarship
More families deserve access.
When a baby has complex medical needs, families are already carrying so much — appointments, equipment, time away from work, worry that never quite clocks out. Specialized nutrition support shouldn’t be one more thing that depends on a bank account.
The MilkHaven Family Scholarship, created in partnership with Milkify Medical, helps eligible families experiencing financial barriers access Milkify’s MOM Fortification services. It is funded by the MilkHaven collection itself:
3%
of MilkHaven collection product sales support the scholarship
Applications are handled by Milkify Medical, and Milk Drunk Club participates in selecting recipients. Eligibility and whether MOM Fortification is clinically appropriate for a baby are determined through Milkify’s program, together with the infant’s medical team. If your family could use this support, please consider this a genuine invitation — that is what it is here for.
Apply for the MilkHaven Family Scholarship
Applications are open now through Milkify Medical. The button above takes you directly to the application on Milkify’s website. Applications are submitted directly to Milkify Medical, not through this website. Milkify shares applications with Milk Drunk Club so we can choose scholarship recipients together, and application information is used only for this scholarship. Everything in an application is information a family chooses to share about its own situation.
The clinical service, and the scholarship, are two different things
MOM Fortification is a medical service provided by Milkify Medical, under the supervision of your baby’s providers. The MilkHaven Family Scholarship is financial assistance toward that service. Milk Drunk Club’s role is to help fund it and to help choose the families it supports — never to make clinical decisions about your baby.
Not sure whether to ask?
If cost is the thing standing between your family and a conversation with Milkify, that is precisely the situation this scholarship exists for. Start with Milkify Medical — their team leads intake for every family and can talk through both the clinical questions and the scholarship.
The MilkHaven Collection
How your MilkHaven purchase helps
“MilkHaven was created to make caring for your own milk a little easier. Now, every purchase helps us extend that care to another family.”
MilkHaven is our reusable breast milk storage collection — designed with intention, because how milk is stored matters. From the day this partnership begins, 3% of every MilkHaven collection product sale goes to the MilkHaven Family Scholarship fund, helping eligible families access Milkify Medical’s MOM Fortification services.
No extra step, no add-on at checkout, nothing asked of you beyond the purchase you were already making for your own family. Your milk matters to your baby. Now it quietly matters to another mother, too.
Milkify Medical
The people behind the work
MOM Fortification was built by clinicians who have spent their careers beside the same bassinets I have. It is a privilege to introduce a few of them.
Berkley Luck, PhD
Founder + COO
Dr. Luck founded Milkify Medical to bring individualized, mother’s-own-milk fortification to the families who need it — and leads the company behind the program.
Allyson Ward, NNP
Medical Director
A neonatal nurse practitioner with more than twenty years in the NICU. Allyson leads intake for every MOM Fortification family and coordinates with each baby’s care team.
Heather Delaney, MD, FAAP
Medical Advisor
A double-board-certified neonatologist and pediatrician who helped shape the MOM Fortification program from concept onward.
Laura Serke, RD, IBCLC
Dietitian & IBCLC
A NICU dietitian and lactation consultant who brings human milk analysis and individualized fortification together in support of families.
For clinical details, program information, and the scholarship application, visit MilkifyMedical.com.
Growing Together
This is just the beginning.
This partnership is new, and this page will grow with it. In time, this is where we will share scholarship updates, educational conversations with Dr. Luck, and photographs from Shannon’s visit to Milkify’s Houston facility — always with care, and only ever with a family’s explicit permission.
We would rather show you this chapter honestly, as it unfolds, than fill it with numbers that don’t exist yet. Check back — good things are being built here.
A Shared Commitment
Care that travels from one mother to another.
Milk Drunk Club has always believed that supporting a baby starts with standing beside their mother. Partnering with Milkify Medical lets that belief reach further — to the mothers pumping through the night in NICU hallways, and the babies who need every drop to go a little further.
However you arrived at this page, there is a place for you in it.
For clinical information about MOM Fortification, visit Milkify Medical.
Please read: MOM Fortification is a medical service provided by Milkify Medical. It is intended for infants weighing more than 1,800 grams and is provided under the supervision of the infant’s healthcare provider. This page is educational only and is not medical advice; whether fortification is appropriate for your baby is a decision for you and your baby’s care team. MilkHaven products are consumer breast milk storage products sold by Milk Drunk Club. They are a separate offering and are not part of, approved for, or validated for use in Milkify Medical’s medical process. Scholarship applications are submitted to and administered through Milkify Medical. Milkify shares applications with Milk Drunk Club so recipients can be chosen together, and application information is used only for this scholarship.
