The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

My first Mothers' Milk Bank of New England newsletter.

I sent out the first e-newsletter of the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England last week.  I wouldn't ordinarily post about it, but it's the first one I've ever done, and I'm feeling a little proud! 

You can see it in the newsletter archive site, and you can subscribe by following the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

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The wonders of breastmilk: Cancer therapy and source of stem cells.

A couple of articles in the past week have highlighted the amazing properties of breastmilk. 

One, a nightly news segment from Texas, shows how increased demand for donor milk has left some cancer patients unable to obtain it.  But the parts that got me a little choked up were interviews with a cancer survivor and the mother of a premature baby born at 2 lbs.  Some comments are below, but it's really worth watching this clip.

[Dr. Don] Bauer had a cancerous tumor in his right vocal chord, severe enough to cut off his airway. Surgeons removed it, leaving him with a hole in his neck to talk and breathe.

"So I was bent on getting better. No matter what," he said, wiping his eyes.  But he didn't get better.

Bauer lost 35 pounds in one week, and his diabetes made recovery almost impossible. Then he discovered a new remedy: a mother's breast milk.

"It's just a boost of energy, and it's not like drinking an energy drink or a couple cups of quick coffee, but a slow process of feeling good," he said...

Dr. June Meymand runs a cancer center and says breast milk protects her patients' healthy cells, while killing the cancer at same time.

"What actually causes the damage to the body will be carried out through the intestine and will not become active," she said.

The second is a report from Australia documenting the presence of stem cells in breastmilk.  I remember reading a discussion of this in an article in 2006, in which breastmilk stem cells were described as "an important but so far unappreciated live, functional component of breast milk."  Looks like they're getting their due now:

[Dr. Mark Kregan and] his team cultured cells from human breast milk and found a population that tested positive for the stem cell marker, nestin. Further analysis showed that a side population of the stem cells were of multiple lineages with the potential to differentiate into multiple cell types. This means the cells could potentially be “reprogrammed” to form many types of human tissue...

“We have shown these cells have all the physical characteristics of stem cells. What we will do next is to see if they behave like stem cells,” he says.

If so, they promise to provide researchers with an entirely ethical means of harvesting stem cells for research without the debate that has dogged the harvesting of cells from embryos.

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Mothers Milk Bank wins semi-final round. Vote in the finals, please!

Last week I posted about a contest on a site called IdeaBlob, urging you to vote for a proposal from the Mothers Milk  Bank of New England.  The winner, chosen by online votes, receives $10,000.

Many of you voted, and we made it to the final round!  We're now competing against seven other ideas, in a round than runs from January 22nd to January 31st.

I'm back asking you to vote again in the final round to help us win these much needed funds.  Please take a few seconds today to visit the site below and cast your vote.  You'll be supporting the milk bank's costs for equipment, a 'Milk Money Fund,' and outreach materials.  So, please:

• VOTE HERE
• Pass this along to friends and family.
• If you have a blog or participate in an online discussion forum, post it there.

A New Hampshire reporter who heard about this contest as written a great article about the Milk Bank, which you can find here. 

Thank you!  Feel free to email me with any questions.

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Please spend 30 seconds today to help the Mothers Milk Bank of New England.

A few weeks ago Jen at The Lactivist pointed me to an online competition at a site called IdeaBlob.  The contest allows anyone to post a business or non-profit idea and compete for $10,000, given away each month.

Jen suggested that we try to raise some needed money for the startup of the Mothers Milk Bank of New England.  Despite the large number of hospitals in our region, the nearest milk banks to our area are in North Carolina and Ohio!  My local breastfeeding coalition has been working to establish a milk collection depot in our area. 

The Milk Bank needs money for 1) processing and storage equipment, 2) a "Milk Money" fund to help families whose insurance won't cover processing fees, and 3) marketing materials to get the word out about the new bank. 

So, here's our chance to make a big difference today.  Here's what to do:

• Go to the Milk Bank page on IdeaBlob, and vote for this project!  You have to register first and confirm by email, which doesn't take long.
• Blog or post about this wherever you can to help bring in more votes.

Thank you for your time today!  And cross your fingers...

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Motherwear Podcast: MilkShare, a website on private milk donation.

Welcome to another Motherwear Podcast!  This episode features Kelley Faulkner, founder and owner of MilkShare, a website on private milk donation. 

To listen, you can either use the player below, or download the podcast to your own player. 

You'll hear about the controversial topic of private milk donation, how MilkShare started and how it works, the risks associated with milk sharing, Kelley's own story, and the reasons why families seek donated milk for their babies.

*Note:  There are risks associated with private milk donation, and families considering it should consult with a health care provider.  You may also want to see La Leche League's policy on milk sharing. 

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A new project: Setting up a breastmilk collection station.

I'm part of a fledgling breastfeeding coalition in my area (Western Massachusetts).  We meet monthly at Motherwear and are trying to get a couple of projects off the ground. 

One of them is a collection point for breastmilk donated to the new Mother's Milk Bank of New England (no website yet), which is expected to open in 12 to 18 months in the Boston area.  It'll serve NICUs all over New England.  This is very exciting because the nearest milk banks to New England are in North Carolina and Ohio!  At the collection point we'd collect milk from mothers in this area who have gone through the screening process, and transport it to Boston. 

So, I'm starting to look around for a location.  We'll need a deep freezer and a location with backup power so that milk doesn't thaw if there's a power outage.  I've heard that some milk banks locate collection stations in fire stations for that reason.  We'll also need to either drive the collected milk in to the Boston area, or try to get shipping donated by a local UPS or FedEx store.  If anyone reading this runs a collection station, or knows someone who does, please email me.

We hosted the director of the new milk bank a few months ago, and learned some really interesting facts about milk banking.  For example:

• The first milk bank in the country was established in Boston in 1911 at the Children's Floating Hospital.
• There are 10 non-profit milk banks in the U.S.  There are more than that in the U.K., despite lower population, and there are hundreds of milk banks in Brazil.
• Many milk banks shut down during the 1980's due to concerns about HIV.
• The incidence and severity of illness among premature babies is decreased when a NICU uses banked breastmilk (as a supplement to a mother's own milk).  Babies fed supplemental donor milk also leave NICUs earlier.
• Even after pasteurization, donor milk retains 100% of many important components of breastmilk that aren't present in formula at all.  Other components not present in formula survive the pasteurization process and are reduced only in part. 
• Pasteurized milk from non-profit milk banks is sold for $3 to $4 per ounce. 
• There has been a huge increase in demand for donor milk in recent years, driven in part by mothers who insist on it, and neonatologists who see the benefits for their patients and "never look back."

Photo credit:  Human Milk Banking Association of North America, posted with permission.  Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed?  Click here.

Everything old is new again: cross-nursing and wet nursing in the news.

Last week I was in my dentist's waiting room with a few other patients, and the Today Show was playing on the TV.  Just before I was called in a promo came on for a segment on cross nursing and wet nursing (see video). 

Two women in the room, one younger and one middle-aged, started giggling uncomfortably.  The only man in the room shifted in his seat.  One woman said, "I mean, that's weird, right?" 

I'm pretty uncomfortable engaging strangers on topics like these, and this topic has a pretty big 'ick factor.'  But I went for it.

I said, "You know, historically this was the norm.  Formula has only been around for about 50 years, and before that, if a mother couldn't breastfeed, an aunt or a cousin would breastfeed the baby.  It was the only way a baby could survive."

The woman looked startled and said, "Really?  Wow.  I don't have kids, and I had no idea.  That's really interesting.  I thought it was a 'I'm too busy to do that' kind of thing."

Then I got called in to see the dentist.

The truth is that I know several adults from other countries who were nursed by relatives or wet nurses for exactly this reason.  If it weren't for this system - still used in many parts of the world - I don't know that they would be alive today.

Of course, not all of the history on this is good.  Most notably in this country, slavery forced many African American women to nurse the children of their masters, often at the expense of their own children.  Jennifer at Black Breastfeeding Blog has been exploring that topic this week.  And of course there are health issues associated with this practice, particularly the transmission of viruses such as HIV.

But every once in a while I try to imagine what it would be like if I had another baby and for some reason couldn't breastfeed.  I know that I'd move heaven and earth to get that baby human milk.

Is the media interest in this topic a sign of how far we've come in getting breastfeeding accepted in the culture, or is this simply a way to exploit an "oh, gross" story to boost ratings?  This topic is in Time Magazine this month, too. 

I have been noticing, just in the last couple of years, much more awareness of milk banks, induced lactation, and adoptive nursing.  One family I met in a prenatal class knew all about Milk Share, and several moms I know have been pumping to give milk to an adopted baby.  The milk banks are also seeing a huge increase in demand.  What's going on here?  Your thoughts?

"How I became a breast milk donor."

I recently asked Ty, an Oklahoma mother and donor to the International Breastmilk Project to tell her story about becoming a breastmilk donor.  Here is her story. 

"My name is Ty (Tanya) and I am mom to almost 4 year-old Evan and 10 month-old Isabella (Izzie). 

During my year of nursing Evan, I threw out 8 freezer shelves full of milk after the milk bank I contacted said they were full.  It broke my heart to do it.  I would usually ask my husband to throw it away for me.  Once I just left several large ziplock bags out on the counter for a few hours so that I could tell myself it was bad anyway and had to be thrown away. 

I had already thrown out several shelves of Izzie's milk before my cousin called.  She was very excited because she'd heard about a program that would send my milk to Africa to babies orphaned by AIDS.

About ten years ago I worked in the AIDS field for several years.  During that time my best friend Paul (and countless other friends) died from the disease.  When I heard about the International Breastmilk Project I was speechless.  I thought immediately of a woman I had known who was HIV positive when she gave birth to her baby (who was not infected).  She shared with me that she felt cheated because she could not nurse her child without risking infecting the baby through her breastmilk.  Suddenly I imagined a baby without breastmilk or a mother to feed it.  I knew that I absolutely wanted to be a part of this program.

As time went on, I realized just how much of a personal impact donating milk has on me.  I have been excited for a long time for another friend who is involved in a trial for an AIDS vaccine.  After contacting IBMP and starting the donor process I burst into tears when I realized that I had actually been jealous of him because he was able to help fight the effects of AIDS with his own body.  Now, thanks to IBMP, my body has joined the fight!  All that milk will have a use, and those precious babies will have more of a chance."

Are you a breastmilk donor with a story to tell?  Email me or leave a comment below.  On this blog you'll find more information on both the International Breastmilk Project and the issue of Breastfeeding and HIV (update based on new research coming soon).   For a list of U.S. and Canadian milk banks, see the Human Milk Banking Association of North America.

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Colorado Milk Bank "Running on Empty." Can you help?

The Mother's Milk Bank of Denver at Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center is desperate need of breastmilk donations.  Milk bank director Laraine Lockhart Borman says the agency's freezers are bare.

Mothers who are in good health, don't smoke or take medication and have babies younger than 6 months old are needed to donate milk to the milk bank.  Information on donation is on milk bank's website, or you can call the milk bank at (303) 869-1888.

Milk banks provide breastmilk to hospitals where it is used to help save the lives of premature and seriously ill infants like the baby described below.  CBS4 in Denver reported (video):

Julia Lam is a beautiful, happy baby, but the six-month-old is also very sick. She's undergoing aggressive chemotherapy to combat an unusual form of lymphoma.

"This is without a question a life threatening disease process for her," said Dr. Lorrie Odom, a Pediatric Oncologist.

Lam has to wait to eat until medical tests are finished, and when she gets hungry for milk, it will be breast milk, for its nutrition and antibodies.

"To give her the best chance to tolerate the chemotherapy and its side effects," said Dr. Odom.

Lam's mother's milk supply dwindled when she got sick, so now her human breast milk is donated.

It comes from the Mother's Milk Bank, but their supply is also running low.

Demand is up at the milk bank. They gave out 14,000 ounces last month, but donations have remained steady at 10,000 ounces, so the freezer is now nearly empty.

"We hold our breath when the phone rings because we know it's probably going to be a recipient asking for milk and we're wondering are we going to be able to supply this baby," said Laraine Lockhart Borman, with the Mother's Milk Bank.

Human milk can be lifesaving for some children, without it they may end up hospitalized and sicker than they already are.

Why the shortage?  Maybe it has something to do with the rapid increase in demand for breastmilk.  The Human Milk Banking Association of North America reports that among their 11 member milk banks there has been a 45% increase in breastmilk dispensed between 2000 and 2005.  For a list of milk banks in the U.S. and Canada, click here.

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Got extra milk? Here's a place where it could mean "the difference between life and death."

I was going to write about something else today, but I just heard about this:  ABC World News had a story last night about a group of mothers in Missouri who have collected breastmilk to send to AIDS orphans in South Africa.  The story, including the video clip which features some very cute babies, is here.

A project founded by a professor of pediatrics in South Africa collects breastmilk from healthy mothers to provide to immune-compromised infants who have been orphaned by AIDS.  Donors are screened and the milk is pasteurized.  The breastmilk has a profound effect on these children, who sometimes arrive so sick and malnourished that they can barely cry.  Within a few weeks they are "full of life."

In Columbia, Mo., Jill Youse read about the IThemba Lethu orphanage on the Internet while she was breast-feeding her 10-month-old daughter, Estella.

"For children who are sick, especially if they have HIV or other diseases, breast milk could be the difference between life and death," Youse said.

She decided to get involved and found other breast-feeding mothers in her town who were also interested in helping the South African babies. Youse soon collected 24 gallons of frozen breast milk.

To transport the milk to South Africa, Youse contacted express carrier DHL, which agreed to ship the donation to South Africa free of charge.

Wow.  Let's hear it for those Missouri moms! 

For more information about the project, see the website for the International Breastmilk Project.  The Project's website says that they're planning another shipment for early 2007.  I'll definitely spread the word at the breastfeeding clinic, where I often see mothers who have lots of pumped milk to spare.