By Jan Jarvis

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

When William Daley was born prematurely on March 8, he weighed only 2
pounds 6 ounces.
He turned 6 weeks old Monday, and little William is getting bigger by the
day, thanks in part to breast milk donated by a stranger because his mother
could not produce it.
"We're absolutely thrilled and blessed to have this option for our son,"
said his mother, Carol Daley of Arlington. "We're very thankful that women
are willing to do this."
For sick or premature babies such as William, who was born at 27 weeks,
mother's milk can make the difference between thriving and dying.
But when a mother cannot provide that essential nourishment, doctors and
families must turn to other lactating women for help. A new milk bank
scheduled to open next month in Fort Worth should make the search a little
easier.
The milk that women donate to the bank can help sick babies fight
infections and avoid a devastating intestinal disease, said Dr. Susan
Sward, a Fort Worth neonatalogist.
"It's like gold to our babies," she said.
The Fort Worth Milk Bank -- a consortium involving Cook Children's Medical
Center, Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital and Baylor All Saints Medical
Center-- will be located in the Child Study Center. The bank, which is in
the final stages of becoming a nonprofit organization, has collection sites
in Bedford and Plano.
Breast milk is especially important to premature and sick babies because
they are at a tenfold greater risk of acquiring intestinal infections if
fed formula instead of human milk, according to the Mother's Milk Bank at
Austin.
About 25 percent of premature infants fed formula contract necrotizing
entercolitis, a disease that attacks the intestinal lining. Of those
babies, up to 62 percent die from it.
Babies also need donated human milk when their mothers are unable to
provide for them because of illness, chemotherapy or medications, Sward
said. With multiple births, a mother may not be able to provide enough
volume, she said.
"It's hard to feed one, let alone three sick babies," she said. "But that
doesn't mean the babies should be penalized."
Because there's a shortage of donated milk, it's usually only given to sick
or premature babies, said Gretchen Flatau executive director of Mother's
Milk Bank at Austin.
"The supply of milk in the United States is such that we don't have the
luxury of serving healthy babies," she said.
With only six milk banks in the United States and Canada, getting enough
donations to meet the need has not been easy. In the past, families in this
area turned to milk banks in Denver and Austin.
Last year the Austin milk bank dispensed about 115,000 ounces to 20
hospitals around the country.
"Ideally with a state as big as Texas having two or three milk banks makes
sense," she said. "In other parts of the world, such as Brazil, formula is
almost nonexistent and there are milk banks in every city."
Donating milk is really easy, but it can make such a difference to the
babies who need it, Sward said.
"It's like donating blood without a needle," she said.
Lactating mothers pump their breast milk, then freeze it until it can be
dropped off at a collection depot. Women are usually asked to donate at
least 100 ounces, but some give as much as 1,000.
Once the milk is delivered to the bank, it is heat-treated to kill any
bacteria or viruses. It is then refrozen and stored.
Only after the milk has been cultured and shows no sign of bacteria growth
is it shipped frozen to hospitals. The milk can only be dispensed by a
physician prescription or hospital purchase.
The milk that babies receive is extremely safe, Flatau said.
"There has never been a documented case of a baby being harmed by donor
milk," she said.
To make sure the donor milk is safe, donors are carefully screened for
communicable diseases. Donors must also be nonsmokers who are not regularly
consuming any medication.
Daley said she's grateful to the women who have donated milk because it's
made such a difference to her baby.
"It's so helpful to premature babies to have breast milk," she said. "It's
just such a blessing."
How to donate milk
Any healthy woman who is breast feeding an infant and can set aside time to
express it can donate milk. Donors are carefully screened and tested before
their milk is accepted.
• For information about donating milk, call the neonatalogy office at
Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital at (682) 885-4283.

Jan Jarvis, (817) 548-5423 [log in to unmask]

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