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Some newborns require breast milk for health reasons. Supplies are running low.
A California breast milk bank is having to cut back on helping babies who need it because supplies are running short, as are other milk banks around the country.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Mothers’ Milk Bank in San Jose is unable to meet the demand for donated breast milk given to babies who need it for medical reasons such as prematurity. They explain, “Babies at high risk often need human milk because they have trouble digesting foreign substances such as formula.”
Many of the few milk banks that exist in the United States already have to stretch their supplies across several states because no such banks exists in those other areas, yet more and more doctors are prescribing breast milk to sick babies. In an interview with the Chronicle, San Jose’s Pauline Sakamoto said, “In the 12 years I’ve been executive director, I’ve never been short. We’ve had to cut back on some of the hospital orders just so we can service more. We had to cut back on some outpatient kids because we didn’t have that supply.”
How You Can Help Babies in Need
A Colorado teacher claims she was fired for pumping breast milk at work.
Heather Burgbacher claims her contract teaching technology at Rocky Mountain Academy of Evergreen in Colorado was not renewed because she breastfed her baby, requiring her to pump breast milk during the work day. Despite a Colorado law stating employers have to make reasonable accommodations to working mothers who want to pump breast milk, the teacher said the human resources director recommended she supplement her child’s breast milk with formula. Continue reading »
Would you give your breast milk to a friend's baby?
Everyone knows that breast milk is the best, most natural option for babies. And everyone knows that sometimes breastfeeding just doesn’t work out like we want it to. There could be problems with milk production, a medical issue that doesn’t allow the mom to produce milk at all, the baby has latching problems, medications that make breast milk unsuitable for baby; a myriad of issues can stand between a mother and that perfect breastfeeding experience. But how far would you go to ensure that your baby gets breast milk as opposed to formula?
A growing number of milk sharing sites (and Craig’s List!) are allowing mothers to seek breast milk for their babies and to circumvent FDA sanctioned milk donor banks. Milk Banks require health testing for the donors, have strict guidelines on handling and storage of breast milk, and primarily provide donated milk to fragile and vulnerable infants in hospitals, making them unattainable for some women who are just looking for extra milk to supplement their own supply. The prospect of feeding your baby a stranger’s breast milk might make some squeamish, but there are others whose conviction that breast milk is the only option for their baby (even if they can’t provide it themselves) makes this new avenue to finding breast milk donors a welcome one.
Women Sprayed Police with Breast Milk
This must have come as a pretty big surprise to a pair of sheriff deputies in Westerville, Ohio. When confronting a woman about a domestic dispute over the weekend, the officers were sprayed with her breast milk. Yup, this lactating lady whipped out her boob and shot her milk at the police. What happened and was she charged? Continue reading »
Why does breast milk protect against sids?
An article in Pediatrics tells us that nursing your baby lowers the risk of sudden infant death syndrome. From an analysis of 288 studies (18 of which met scientific criteria to be included), it was found that babies who were breastfed were 60 percent less likely to suffer from SIDS than those who were given no breast milk.
And the longer the baby was nursed, the lower the risk — for moms babies who were exclusively breastfed, the risk with 73 percent lower.
The fact that breastfeeding is linked to SIDS is of interest, but to me the more intriguing part is the researchers explanation for why this might be. Here’s what they say could protect infants from SIDS when they’re on a diet of breast milk:
At what point do the risks of breast milk outweigh the benefits if you're unsure of the source?
I’m all for creative ways of making money. And I’m all for supporting women entrepreneurs, in general. One idea I can’t wrap my brain around, however, is women buying and selling breast milk online.
I know that breast milk is best for babies. I regret that I didn’t nurse my first daughter longer than I did and am determined to at least try and do better for my second. But even if I had known of breast milk banks or websites where breast milk is available for sale, in a million years it wouldn’t have been a choice I would have made (and still won’t).
I know wet nurses have been around for centuries and that some women literally save the lives of other women’s babies by nursing them, but to me, some bodily fluids are sacred and to be kept in the family only.
But if there were some reason why I had to buy someone else’s breast milk, the very last place I would do it — and then I simply wouldn’t do it at all — is online.
Continue reading »
How maternity leave affects breastfeeding
Yesterday, Pediatrics published an article online about the effect of maternity leave on breastfeeding rates. The results were not surprising, but a good reminder of one huge road block this country has if it wants to meet the public health goal of having more nursing moms.
The CDC sets goals every 10 years as part of the Healthy People initiative and last year we fell short when it came to breastfeeding — the rates are stagnant and low. As I said last week in my post on hospital formula practices, even though 75 percent of moms breastfeed in the hospital, less than half are doing so at six months and only 13 percent are exclusively nursing at six months.
The new study looked at how breastfeeding rates relate to the amount of time moms have for maternity leave: Continue reading »
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