The Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog

Our breastfeeding coalition in the news.

Our breastfeeding coalition, which meets at Motherwear, has been making the local news a lot recently.  Here are some articles that showcase things we're doing:

Going Baby Friendly, Valley Advocate

A Victory for Nursing Moms and Babies, Valley Advocate

Breastfeeding Welcome, Pioneer Valley Parent

Milk Bank supplies 'the perfect food:' Breastfeeding task force brings critical resource to Pioneer Vallley, Valley Kids

There was also a great news segment about the breast cancer research project I'm working on.

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

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.  

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

A "Call to Action on Breastfeeding"

The US Department of Health and Human Services, Office on Women’s Health wants to know what you think DHHS should do in the next decade to promote and support breastfeeding in the United States.

The Office of Women’s Health is looking for comments in the following twelve areas:

1. Maternal and Infant Care Practices: Prenatal, Hospital, and Post-Delivery Care
2. Access to Lactation Care and Support
3. Health Professional Education, Publications, and Conferences
4. Use of Banked Human Milk
5. Worksite Lactation Support, Onsite Child Care, and Milk Expression
6. Paid Maternity Leave
7. Portrayal of Breastfeeding in Traditional Popular Media and New Electronic Media
8. Support for Breastfeeding in Public Settings
9. Peer Support and Education of Family Members and Friends
10. Community Support for Breastfeeding in Complementary Programs (e.g., Early Head Start, Home Visitation, Parental Training)
11. Research and Surveillance
12. Other Areas

Comments are requested until 31 May 2009.  Here's the link where you can make your voice heard! You can read the comments left so far.

This is your opportunity to help influence and shape the decisions that may affect breastfeeding promotion and support in the United States for the foreseeable future.

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

CBS News shows why preemies need breastmilk.

This video (sorry about the ad that precedes it) does a great job of showing the value of breastmilk for preterm babies.  The statistics on NEC (necrotilizing enterocolitis) alone are dramatic, and that's just one of many problems preemies can have.  I wish that all NICUs were as on board with breastfeeding as UCSD Medical Center.

I've always had a lot of admiration for all of the nursing and pumping moms of preemies, as well as the breastmilk donors who come to their aid.  Here's proof that it's worth it.

Are you the mom of a preterm baby?  Feel free to tell your story in the comments section.

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

Miss any of these podcasts?

A couple of years ago, when Motherwear asked me to create podcasts for the blog, I almost said no.  I felt nervous about doing recordings, and wasn't sure what people would want to hear.

The president of Motherwear had me meet with the owners of a big yarn store in our area, who do a weekly radio show about knitting.  Their show is produced as a podcast and is very popular.  I went with them to the radio station to watch them record it.  It actually looked like fun, and I committed to giving it a try. 

The funny thing is that I really enjoy the process of putting these podcasts together.  I like reading the books, coming up with questions, and talking with authors.  I've had a chance to talk with people I might never have contacted.

Can you guess which one is the most frequently downloaded from the iTunes store?  A breastfeeding welcome here sticker goes to the first person to guess correctly (leave your guess as a comment).  And if you're feeling friendly, please go to our iTunes store and write a review! 

• Breastfeeding and early sexual abuse, with Penny Simkin
• African American moms and breastfeeding, with Kathi Barber
• How do other mammals do it? With Dia Michels
• What's the problem with those formula company bags? With Alison Stuebe
• Starting solid foods, with Ellyn Satter
• Breastfeeding in the movies, with Sarah Rubenstein Gillis
• Low milk supply: Could it be your hormones? With Lisa Marasco
• So, you want to work in breastfeeding support (just me)
  
• Nursing in public and the law, with Jake Marcus
• Making more milk, with Diana West
• Hathor the Cow Goddess, with Heather Cushman-Dowdee
• Postpartum depression and breastfeeding, with Kathleen Kendall-Tackett
• MilkShare, with Kelly Faulkner
• The Milk Memos, with Cate Colburn-Smith

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

Sometimes it takes a village to feed a child.

Here's a truly unusual story, at least here and now.

The Mining Journal reports that Susan Goodrich died eleven hours after giving birth to her son Charles.  Her husband Robbie considered feeding Charles with banked donor milk, but was told that it would be days before it could arrive.

In the meantime, Goodrich received a phone call from family friend Laura Janowski of Marquette, who was still nursing her fourth child, 1-year-old Emily. In her message, Janowski offered Goodrich to nurse Moses.

"That's when it clicked in my head," he said. "I wanted the baby to be nursed. That's something that Susan would have wanted."

One thing led to another when family friend Nicoletta Fraire of Marquette began organizing a group of women who may want to help feed Moses.

"Basically, a couple of phone calls were enough," she said. "I just had to leave my name and phone number and calls started to come in."

She also made contact with Sally Keskey, founder of the Yooper Nursers - a local breast feeding support group. Within a brief time, nearly 20 women were found who offered to breast-feed Moses. Many of them belong to the support group and had never met the Goodrich family before...

A schedule was put together with feeding times at 9 a.m., noon, 1:30 , 4 , 6:30 and 8 p.m. Six times a day a different mother has been feeding Moses for the past two months. During the night, Goodrich bottle-feeds his son breast milk that was pumped by the women.

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

Donated milk keeps two year old alive.

The Times Call of Longmont, Colorado recently reported on a mother who discovered the power of breastmilk when her two year old was diagnosed with a severe case of inflammatory bowel disease:

Symptoms started about a year ago, when Grace began vomiting almost every night for several months, her mother said.

...At one point, Grace cried and screamed for three days and didn’t eat or drink. Vaught and her husband took her to the hospital, where tests were performed, and then found a doctor to treat the disorder.

Soon after, Vaught thought about trying breast milk as Grace had already been weaned and Vaught was still nursing her younger child. The first time Grace drank it, she kept it down.

Vaught prayed: “Lord, if this is something, show me.”

But Vaught, a mother of six, could pump only 4 ounces that day. Armed with $35 and a prescription, she went to Mother’s Milk Bank, a Denver nonprofit, but was shocked to find it would cost $200 a day to buy enough milk for Grace. That day, the milk bank gave her extra.

She prayed again. Mother’s Milk Bank donated $1,000 worth of breast milk. When Vaught ran out of that milk, she prayed again. Samaritans Ministry Christian Health Care, a nonprofit through which Christians help other Christians with medical expenses, donated $21,000 for milk.

Vaught put word out at her church, and news of her plight quickly spread. Other women stepped forward to help, including the group of Longmont women. Through postings on the Internet, she sometimes receives coolers from across the nation from women she has never met.

She admits the milk has not been tested for diseases, but feels that the women had prenatal tests before giving birth.

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

January's Carnival of Breastfeeding: Breastfeeding goals.

Welcome to this month's Carnival of Breastfeeding!  This month's theme is breastfeeding goals.  Be sure to check out what other bloggers have to say on this topic at the bottom of this post.

I have a whole lot of breastfeeding goals for this year.  Some of them are:

Finish Spanish for Breastfeeding Support.  Last week my co-author and I finished a final draft of a book which will help breastfeeding support people communicate with mothers in Spanish.  It should be out by this summer, and I'm very excited to have reached this stage.  I'm setting up a website for the book, which will have a 'how do I say this?' forum, extra exercises, and links to breastfeeding resources in Spanish.  Here are a few audio clips from when we were recording the audio portion.

Recruit mothers for a breastfeeding/biopsy study.  As I've mentioned before, I'm helping Dr. Kathleen Arcaro at the University of Massachusetts recruit mothers for an important study on breast cancer.  If you know of a nursing mother who has recently had, or expecting to have, a biopsy, please ask them to contact me.  I've set up a website for this and other studies using breastmilk.

Distribute pumps to WIC.  As a result of some fundraising, my breastfeeding coalition recently purchased three pumps for area WIC offices.  They'll loan them out to mothers who might not otherwise be able to afford to rent one.

Hold a breastpump training.  My breastfeeding coalition is also planning to hold a training on breastpumps conducted by Medela in March.  Email me if you'd like more information (use link on sidebar).

Get the word out about Massachusetts' new nursing in public law.  I recently had 500 business cards printed with sections of our new law on nursing in public.  Our coalition will distribute them, and I'll be trying to think of other ways to raise awareness of the new law.

Help get pumping rooms set up at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  For a while a group has been working on setting up pumping rooms at UMass.  So far there is one, newly designated room, and we're hoping for many more.  A list of other campus lactation programs is here. 

Get trained to accept breastmilk donations.  Our breastfeeding coalition has gotten a freezer set up to accept breastmilk donations (see thrilling picture to the left), and as soon as we get trained in how to operate our 'milk depot,' we'll start to receive and ship approved donors' milk to the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England.

Do more podcasts.  You gave me some great ideas for podcast topics last year, and I'm planning on doing them on tandem nursing, extended breastfeeding, sexual abuse and breastfeeding, and breastfeeding and African American moms.

And finally, cut back a little!  I'll be turning over the leadership of our coalition, as well as the responsibility of the newsletter for the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England.  Here's the current newsletter.

Check out these posts from other bloggers participating in this months' carnival (updated throughout the day):

• Zen Mommy's 2009 breastfeeding resolutions
• Secrets of Orual's breastfeeding goals
  
• Hobo Mama's breastfeeding resolutions
• Breastfeeding 1-2-3 on the goal of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months
  
• Blacktating's breastfeeding goals
  
• Milk Act's breastfeeding goals
• Beautiful Letdown's breastfeeding goals
• Mama Knows Breast's breastfeeding goals
  
• Breastfeeding Mums breastfeeding goals
  

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed? Subscribe here.  Want to subscribe to our breastfeeding podcasts on iTunes?  Click here.

End-of-the-year giving to support breastfeeding.

Looking for a breastfeeding organization to donate to for your end of the year charitable giving?  Here are a few ideas:

• La Leche League, International
• Mercy Corps - Breastfeeding Kit
• Jack Newman's Breastfeeding Clinic (needed to keep the doors open)
• Your state breastfeeding coalition
• Your region's breastmilk bank
• UNICEF

Do you have other donation ideas that would help support nursing moms here or around the world?  Feel free to list them in the comments below.

P.S.  You can still buy a 'breastfeeding welcome here sticker' or other item from our Cafe Press shop, to support my local breastfeeding coalition. 

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed?  Click here.

Making some progress.

Well, this has to be just about the most boring picture ever taken, but I'm sharing it because it represents some progress our local breastfeeding task force has made. 

It's the freezer we're going to use to establish a breastmilk collection station for the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England.  When the milk bank starts processing milk we'll be collecting approved donors' milk here before shipping it off to the Boston area.  We were very lucky to have a brand new freezer donated by Salemi Appliance, and it was delivered on Friday to the basement of the pediatric practice where I work.

I'm also really pleased to say that we recently purchased three hospital grade breastpumps to donate to area WIC offices.  This it the result of lots of fundraising work over the last year or so.  I'm really excited that WIC offices in our area will be able to loan pumps to more moms who might otherwise not be able to afford to rent them.  A recent study (pdf) about the effect of pumps on breastfeeding among moms enrolled in WIC came out last year, and it confirms what we all would have guessed - access to pumps helps moms breastfeed exclusively longer.  The study found that mothers who had pumps were 5.5 times less likely to have requested formula by the time their babies were six months old than moms who didn't have access to pumps.  We're also planning to put on a free half day training on pumps for WIC offices and other people involved in breastfeeding support in our area, probably in March.

I also reached a bit of a milestone on a personal project.  I'm writing a book, with a friend, which will help breastfeeding support people learn Spanish.  The goal is to help people who support nursing moms be able to communicate more effectively with Spanish speaking mothers.  I shared a few audio clips a while back.  We're getting the book approved for continuing education credits for lactation consultants, and we have just finished a draft that is good enough for field testers to try it out.  We'll be rerecording and editing in December, with a final deadline of January. 

So, there are some things moving in the right direction here!

Want to get email updates from the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog?  Subscribe here.  Want an RSS feed?  Click here.