Sept. 30, 2025
Milk Math That Matches
Nursing professor develops a digital platform designed to safely connect mothers with surplus breast milk to families in need.
TOPICS: Innovation & Commercialization | Research | School of Nursing | Schools
Designs on Aging-Ready
By Mike Yeomans and Erica Lloyd
When Jill Demirci began as a postpartum nurse at UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in 2005, she witnessed firsthand the challenges new mothers face. “I was excited to help new moms and parents, but many struggled mightily with breastfeeding, and we did not receive much training on lactation,” she says.
As she did her best to support her patients, she became fascinated by human milk as an “evolutionarily perfect” system for the health of mothers and babies alike, so much so that she returned to the University of Pittsburgh to complete her master’s and doctoral degrees with a research focus on clinical and behavioral interventions for improved breastfeeding.
“At the end of my life . . . what will be the worthwhile thing that I would want to leave behind? For me, that will be to have optimized the way care for new parents and families is delivered at a wide scale.”
Jill Demirci, associate professor of health promotion and development
Now an associate professor of health promotion and development and director of the Maternal/Perinatal and Reproductive Health Research Hub at Pitt’s School of Nursing, Demirci leads efforts to revolutionize postpartum care. Her research examines the complex factors contributing to low milk supply and seeks to develop scalable, evidence-based solutions.
Through the Pitt Empowering Innovation, Incubation and Impact (EI³) fellowship, administered by the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIE), Demirci developed Milk Match, a digital platform designed to safely connect mothers with surplus breast milk to families in need beyond what traditional milk banks offer. The project has also received support from the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Office of Research.
Demirci is also laying the groundwork for a wrap-around lactation care center at Pitt School of Nursing—a hub that integrates specialty clinical services like infant speech-language therapy, maternal mental health, and doula and peer support, as well as research. Her goal—to create a replicable model of nurse-led innovation to improve outcomes for families here and elsewhere.
With support from OIE’s Innovation Institute, Demirci is conducting market analysis, refining her business model and seeking regulatory guidance to scale her work beyond Pittsburgh.
It’s rewarding to see her work go in this direction, she says: “At the end of my life . . . what will be the worthwhile thing that I would want to leave behind? For me, that will be to have optimized the way care for new parents and families is delivered at a wide scale.”