Immersive art highlights importance of donor breast milk

Through beautiful paintings and audio, the Connecting Hearts immersive art exhibition tells the stories of the people that have received donor milk for their baby, donate milk or support the work of milk banks. The exhibition brings to life the profound impact that milk donation can have for families and how it can act as a beacon of hope for those affected by infant prematurity, baby loss, maternal cancer and more.

Artist Leanne Pearce said: “We wanted to tell the stories of all those people who are involved in the process of supporting milk banking. So each painting, which has a recorded story with it, tells the experiences of not only parents with babies in neonatal care, but of women who have received milk when they weren't able to breastfeed due to cancer or were struggling to make enough milk and their older baby was unwell.

“My paintings also depict women who have donated in stressful circumstances, including women who have donated after baby loss. I also painted the people who support the service, like the blood bikers who help transport the milk and the lactation consultant at HMF.”

Professor Amy Brown of the University’s Centre for Lactation, Infant Feeding and Translational Research (LIFT) said: “When babies cannot receive their own mother’s milk, donor human milk can be lifesaving for sick and premature babies but it can also change the lives of families, donors and communities. We are delighted to be able to showcase these stories in such a beautiful and engaging way and are very grateful to our funders, HEFCW Research Wales Innovation Funding and UKRI which enabled this.”

Find out more here.