The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Donate breastmilk for breast cancer research.

Some of you probably remember posts I wrote last Fall about a research project I'm involved with at the University of Massachusetts.  (That project is ongoing, and if you are nursing and have had, or are expecting to have, a biopsy, please see the study website for information on how to participate.)

The same professor, Dr. Kathleen Arcaro (shown to the right at a visit to my breastfeeding group), is now recruiting for a separate, though related study. 

This study, funded by the Avon Foundation, involves research on the breastmilk of mothers who have nursed over time.  Dr. Arcaro is examining the DNA of these mothers' milk to identify changes in the functioning of genes in breast epithelial cells.  This will help to identify which genes' functions are being altered (or not altered) over time.  The future of cancer therapy is thought to lie in a field called "epigenetics," (great video about it here) which involves the restoration of normal DNA functioning, so understanding which genes are involved in the development of breast cancer is key.

This time, we're looking for mothers who:

• Are in our area (Western Massachusetts, but anywhere within reasonable driving distance to our area may be okay)
• Had and nursed a baby in your mid-20's
• Are now in your mid 30's or older, and are nursing or pumping
• Willing to provide a milk sample. 

Participants also fill out a questionnaire, and receive $25 in thanks.  If that sounds like you, please email me.  More information is available at Dr. Arcaro's website.

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A little breastfeeding talk on the Colbert Report.

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Breastfeeding made a cameo appearance on the Colbert Report on Wednesday night, in an interview with Michael Pollan. And it isn't the first time breastmilk (kind of) has been on the show.

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I'm feeling proud today.

A while back some members of the group Moms Rising of the Pioneer Valley (a local group affiliated with the national Moms Rising organization) asked me what they could do to try to improve support for breastfeeding moms in our area.  I told them about the UNICEF/WHO Baby Friendly initiative.  They were immediately interested. 

Some background:  Baby Friendly is an award, established in 1990 by UNICEF and the WHO, which earned is earned by hospitals which meet an evidence-based standards of good breastfeeding care.  They follow the 10 Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, which means that they do thinks like not routinely supplement or give pacifiers to breastfeeding babies, training nurses and doctors on how to help mothers breastfeed, and have babies 'room-in' with mothers.  What happens when you do these things?  More mothers breastfeed exclusively.

There are around 16,000 Baby Friendly hospitals in the world.  There are about 75 in the U.S.  There is one in Massachusetts.

So today, the Moms Rising group, along with my breastfeeding coalition, held an event for all of the hospitals in Western Massachusetts.  We had representatives of 8 hospitals there, along with a lot of moms, doulas, and WIC staff.  We had presentations by Baby Friendly USA, Boston Medical Center (the one Baby Friendly Hospital in Massachusetts), and stories written by moms.  Each participant got a 20 page packet of stories written by local moms about their breastfeeding experiences, and each table had table tents with quotes from those stories. 

Why am I feeling proud of this?  Usually the initiative to go Baby Friendly comes from within a hospital.  But this effort is led by moms who want better breastfeeding care.  I asked the representative of Baby Friendly USA if mothers in a community have ever organized to push hospitals to become Baby Friendly and she said she thinks that this is a first. 

I think that's something to be proud of.

Here's an article on the event from our local independent newspaper. 

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One Million Campaign needs your signature.

Created after the Chinese melamine formula scandal, the One Million Campaign urges policy makers to provide supports and protections for breastfeeding around the world.

The Campaign petition, which organizers hope will generate one million signatures, will be presented at the World Health Assembly when it meets next week.

From the Campaign website:

About 10 million of the world's children die every year before they reach their fifth birthday. That is, over 27,000 per day, or over 1100 per hour. Of these, over a third - more than 450 - are less than a month old. Evidence tells us that good breastfeeding practices can save thousands of these babies.

Unfortunately, not even half the women of the world can carry out adequate breastfeeding. 135 million babies are born every year. Only 64 million women can initiate timely breastfeeding. Only 48 million women can practice exclusive breastfeeding for six months.

ONE MILLION CAMPAIGN Support Women to Breastfeed gives you the chance to make your voice heard to support women to breastfeed - to make a difference. Become a vital part of the Wave of Change.Become one of the ONE MILLION.  Sign the petition now.

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Two videos demonstrating different methods of hand expressing milk.

In the age of hands-free pumping and adapters for your car's cigarette lighter, hand expressing is pretty much a lost art in this country.  But talk to any mother who pumped before the early '90's, and you might find that her pump was her hand.

Manual expression can still come in (ahem) handy, even if you have a pump.  If you get very engorged, hand expressing often works better than a pump.  If you can't use your pump (on a plane with no battery pack, for example), it's great to know how to do it.  If you have a really fast let down and need to express before getting your baby latched on, hand expressing is so much more convenient than the pump.  And sometimes it can be nice to be able to get a little milk out before your baby latches on.

Below are two videos that show you how.  The first is the Marmet technique (shown at About.com), and the second is the technique used at Stanford Hospital.  You'll notice that the hand placement and motions are different.  I think that both can work, and you may want to try both before settling on one.  

• Marmet Technique
• Stanford Hospital

At Stanford Hospital, the lactation consultants teach each mother how to hand express, and encourage them to do it after every feeding while in the hospital.  They then teach the moms how to spoon feed the colostrum to their babies.  This appears to help mothers' milk come in sooner, and I would guess that it helps reduce babies' weight loss.  At a minimum, it teaches moms this really useful skill.

Have any of you had any luck hand expressing?  Did anyone teach you how?

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Create a "Mother of the Year" video.

My sister-in-law just sent me a video of me being awarded "Mother of the Year" and being honored by Beyonce, Moms Rising, President Obama, and others.

Send this great video to your Mom of the Year, and have a great Mother's Day!

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Speedlinking: A few great posts (and a cartoon) to check out.

Here are a few great posts for you from around the web:

NPR's Tell Me More talks breastfeeding.

Case Closed: Breast is best.  This is Mothering Magazine's Peggy O'Mara's response to The Case against Breastfeeding.

Elita at Blacktating shares a great list of hip hop lyrics that reference breastfeeding.

Want to know what breastfeeding is like in Japan?  Here's one dad's perspective. 

A new Baby Blues cartoon with breastfeeding, thanks to reader Jenny.

A blog devoted to breastfeeding pictures: Breastfeeding is not obscene.

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Join the next Carnival of Breastfeeding: Share a story.

Join in the May Carnival of Breastfeeding!

This month's theme is "share a story." Please share with the Carnival readers any great stories you have related to breastfeeding. It can be about your overall breastfeeding experience or anything funny, sad or touching that has happened during your nursing relationship.

Please send your submissions by May 18th.  The Carnival will be on May 25th. As always, we are looking for posts that are:

• Well-written and grammatically correct
• Thoughtful and directly on point for the carnival subject
• Submitted by blogs that pertain to subjects of interest to our readers (breastfeeding, parenting, etc.)

If your post is selected for inclusion, you will be asked on the day of the carnival to edit your post to link back to each of the other participants in the carnival. Examples of past carnivals can be found here.

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Celebrate Mother's Day with a $25 Motherwear gift certificate.

Time for another Motherwear gift certificate contest, this time in honor of Mother's Day!

To enter to win the $25 gift certificate, leave a comment below by May 11t, 2009.  U.S. addresses only, please.  The winner will be chosen using random.org, and announced in the comments section of this post. 

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What I learned at the milk banking conference.

A few weeks ago I spent the day at the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England's first annual conference.  It was a great event, with people from all over New England and many good presentations on the use of donor milk.

The sponsoring milk bank (you may remember from a flurry of posts I wrote about the Ideablob contest last year) is currently dispensing milk from the Mothers' Milk Bank of Ohio, and expects to be processing milk later this year for NICUs all over our region.  Currently, the nearest milk banks to our area are in Ohio or North Carolina. 

The night before the conference some of us gathered to learn more about how to open a donor breastmilk "depot," where approved donors can drop off their milk to be stored until it's shipped to the milk bank.  Our local breastfeeding coalition has been working to open a depot at a pediatric practice where I work.

The most striking things to me about the presentations at the conference were: 1) how incredibly powerful donor milk can be in preventing serious, life-threatening conditions like necrotilizing enterocolitis (NEC) and late onset sepsis, and 2) how astonishing it is that insurance companies often don't pay for it.  One neonatologist talked about the hours she spends faxing studies to insurance companies and arguing over the phone to try to get donor milk covered for her patients.  

You may have heard that pasteurized donor milk can cost $3.00 to $4.50 an ounce.  That might sound like a lot.  But consider that a tiny preemie who is primarily receiving her mother's own milk may need a supplement of only a few ounces a day.  Then compare that to the estimated $350,000 cost of surgically treating NEC.  That number doesn't even start to take into account the lifelong medical costs from that episode of NEC.  

I'm not going to pretend to understand how insurance companies look at something like this, but doesn't it seem worth it to pay for donor milk?

The most inspiring thing about the conference was the number of people - neonatologists in particular - who are dedicated to making donor milk part of the standard of care for tiny preterm babies.  People have been at this for a long time, but I still felt like I was at the birth of something big - a moment to look back on when donor milk is as accepted as any other therapy for vulnerable babies.  

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