MOTHERS' MILK BANK AT AUSTIN FACING MILK SHORTAGE


"Our milk supply is dangerously low," says Gretchen Flatau, Executive
Director of the Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin.  The problem is
particularly acute right now, as we head into the holiday season.Flatau continues, "We serve hospitals with critically ill newborns.
They have an essential need for this human donor milk.  There is no
substitute."

WHAT:  A critical need for life-saving mothers' milk for premature and
sick babies

WHO:  Healthy breast-feeding women who are feeding an infant, less than
12 months of age, and who are willing to under go a health screening.

WHEN:  Immediately

WHY:  Much like a call for donors for a Blood Bank, we need help
spreading the word.

*    As awareness of the benefits of mothers' milk for sick and
premature babies grows, and as more folks learn about what the Mothers'
Milk Bank at Austin (MMBA) does, the need for our 'product' has
increased significantly.

*    Mothers' milk donated to MMBA is pasteurized and dispensed by
doctors' prescription to premature and seriously ill babies across 
Texas
and the US.  Don! ors undergo a screening process before donating milk
that is pasteurized and stored in Austin.  Most of the infants provided
donor milk weigh less than 3 pounds.

*    Premature infants are at higher risk for disease and death when
their immature systems try to digest artificial baby formula.  Pre-term
infants fed easily digested human milk are 10 times less likely to
develop devastating intestinal diseases.  They have better brain
development, require shorter hospitalization and get fewer infections
than infants fed formula.

*    Part of the cost of processing donor milk is covered by hospitals
and organizations such as Medicaid, but MMBA, which provides milk
regardless of parents' ability to pay, must continually seek resources
to help cover the cost of things like screening donors and processing
and pasteurizing donated milk.

*    The Milk Bank has milk collection! sites in Austin, Dallas, 
Houston,
and San Antonio.

CONTACT:  Gretchen Flatau, Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin, 512.494.0800 
or
toll free at 877.813.MILK (6455).



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