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Subject:
From:
Stacey A Bentz <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 23 Dec 1998 13:09:17 EST
Content-Type:
text/plain
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text/plain (172 lines)
A few months ago there was a phone number given in one of those free
mothering magazines for milk donors and when my co-Leader called she got
a recorded message saying they had enough and thanks, but no thanks???

Stacey, LLLL
On Wed, 23 Dec 1998 11:37:22 EST Cynthia Dillon Payne <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>Just received this press release.  Congrats to Lois Arnold and all the
>people
>who work at the milk banks!
>Cynthia D. Payne
>LLL of Berkshire County Mass
>
><<Demand for Donated Breast Milk Up
>
>.c The Associated Press
>
> By MARTHA MENDOZA
>
>SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- On her second day in the world, tiny Emily
>D'Anne
>Shaw blinked slowly at her mother, opened her delicate lips and let a
>rubber
>nipple slide into her mouth.
>
>``That's it, my sweet baby,'' murmured her mother, Sherrell Shaw.
>
>Emily swallowed one sip, and then slowly one more of the gift that
>came from a
>stranger, one of the donors who this year gave 2,100 gallons of their
>own milk
>for babies, children and even some adults in need of the precious
>fluid.
>
>Mrs. Shaw hadn't been able to produce any milk for her baby, born a
>few weeks
>early. At 5 pounds and 4 ounces, Emily was too fragile to leave the
>pediatric
>intensive care unit but desperately needed the essential nutrients,
>immunities
>and fat found only in breast milk.
>
>So Emily's doctors turned to the ``breast milk angels,'' the unpaid
>donors who
>give milk to six depositories across the country, including the
>Mothers' Milk
>Bank in San Jose. Users pay about $2.50 an ounce for the milk, which
>requires
>a doctor's prescription.
>
>``Every drop that comes out is hard to get, but there is a sense of
>preciousness about this,'' said Vera Michalchik, who juggles milk
>donations
>with raising her two children and working on her doctoral dissertation
>in
>education at Stanford University.
>
>``Some days it's tough, I might not have a good flow, but then I
>think, oh,
>another ounce for another baby who can survive another half a day,''
>she said.
>``I know there's never enough.''
>
>Consumption of the banked milk has skyrocketed by 33 percent, from
>1,400
>gallons last year.
>
>Among the reasons: The American Academy of Pediatrics urged mothers a
>year ago
>to exclusively feed their babies breast milk for their first six
>months. Now
>adoptive parents, drug users or others who cannot nurse are turning to
>the
>banks for a supply.
>
>Public confidence about donor screening is on the rise, too, as
>studies show
>that bodily fluids can be safely tested, processed and distributed.
>
>Finally, new medical advantages are being discovered for human breast
>milk. It
>helps heal babies with infectious diseases, intractable diarrhea and
>pneumonia. Children with severe allergies sometimes can digest nothing
>else.
>Adults recovering from solid organ transplants and suffering from AIDS
>find it
>helps them put on weight. In Mexico, it is poured on burns.
>
>Milk banks can't keep up with the demand.
>
>``We're overwhelmed,'' said Lois Arnold at the Human Milk Banking
>Association
>of North America in Sandwich, Mass. ``There's never enough breast
>milk, and
>there's never enough space, time or people to process and distribute
>it.''
>
>Refrigerators are packed with bags and bottles at the San Jose bank,
>where
>nurse Pauline Sakamoto was preparing a 300-pound shipment last week.
>As she
>worked, a Federal Express package arrived with more frozen milk.
>
>``Sometimes I wonder if I can keep up, but then I just imagine the
>babies who
>need it,'' she said, pouring the cold, creamy fluids into pasteurizing
>beakers.
>
>This batch will be flown by volunteer pilots to Highland and fed to
>two foster
>children: 8-month-old Dori -- who lost 90 percent of her small bowel
>after
>birth and is barely surviving as she waits for a liver and intestinal
>transplant -- and 3-year-old Nicky, who failed to thrive before his
>diet was
>switched to breast milk 18 months ago.
>
>These days he is fed almost 2 quarts a day. His chubby cheeks and
>bright brown
>eyes bring smiles from strangers.
>
>There are no federal guidelines for breast milk banks. The six U.S.
>banks,
>along with one in Canada and one in Mexico, regulate themselves
>through the
>Human Milk Banking Association.
>
>Donors are screened and approved by their own doctors, their baby's
>pediatricians and the milk bank. They donate their milk at home,
>freeze it in
>sterile containers and ship it in batches to the milk banks. There it
>is
>pasteurized and distributed.
>
>Human milk banks have been around, officially, since the turn of the
>century.
>The first known bank in the United States opened in Boston in 1910.
>They
>dropped out of sight in the 1980s as formula companies began producing
>milk
>substitutes for premature infants and AIDS became a real scare.
>
>Charles Shaw wasn't sure what to think last week when doctors
>suggested his
>new daughter be fed banked milk.
>
>``I was leery about it, honestly,'' he said, keeping his hand on his
>wife as
>she cuddled Emily D'Anne. ``But they guarantee this is the healthiest
>thing
>for her.''
>
>Mrs. Shaw whispered something only her baby could hear and then turned
>to her
>husband.
>
>``She's looking wonderful,'' she said. ``She's wonderful.''
>
>AP-NY-12-23-98 0331EST
>
> Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.  The information  contained in
>the AP
>news report may not be published,  broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
>distributed without  prior written authority of The Associated Press.
>    >>
>

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