Milk Donations URGENTLY NEEDED for Haiti

There is an urgent need for human milk to be donated for newborn (especially premature) babies in Haiti. . . . Here is the information regarding Haiti and below that, in red, a response to information from our nearest HMBANA Milk Bank (Denver) regarding eligibility and how to donate, beneath that more information on donating to programs that support mothers feeding their own children (in blue):

URGENT CALL FOR HUMAN MILK DONATIONS FOR HAITI INFANTS

The Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), United States
Breastfeeding Committee (USBC), International Lactation Consultant
Association/United States Lactation Consultant Association (ILCA/USLCA), and
La Leche League International (LLLI) are jointly issuing an urgent call for
human milk donations for premature infants in Haiti, as well as sick and
premature infants in the United States.

This week the first shipment of human milk from mothers in the United States
will be shipped to the U.S. Navy Ship "Comfort" stationed outside Haiti.
"Comfort" is currently set up with a neonatal intensive care unit and
medical personnel to provide urgent care to victims of the earthquake. An
International Board Certified Lactation Consultant stationed at the U.S.
Navy base in Bethesda, MD is assisting with providing breast pump equipment
and supplies to the "Comfort." Dr. Erika Beard-Irvine, pediatric
neonatologist, is on board the "Comfort" to coordinate distribution of the
milk to infants in need. HMBANA, USBC, ILCA/USLCA, and LLL are responding to
requests to provide milk for both premature infants and at-risk mothers who
have recently delivered babies on board the U.S.N.S. Comfort, but an urgent
need exists for additional donations.

At the current time, the infrastructure to deliver human milk on land to
Haiti infants has not yet been established. As soon as that infrastructure
is in place, additional donations will be provided to older infants.

Mothers who are willing to donate human milk should contact their regional
Mothers' Milk Bank of HMBANA. A list of regional milk banks is available at
the HMBANA website at www.hmbana.org.

Currently milk banks are already low on donor milk. New milk donations will
be used for both Haiti victims as well as to replenish donor supplies to
continue to serve sick and premature infants in the U.S. Donor milk provides
unique protection for fragile preterm infants. Financial donations are also
strongly encouraged to allow HMBANA, a nonprofit organization, to continue
serving infants in need.

UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Emergency Nutrition Network, and
medical professionals all recommend that breastfeeding and human milk be
used for infants in disasters or emergencies. Human milk is life-saving due
to its disease prevention properties. It is safe, clean, and does not depend
on water which is often unavailable or contaminated in an emergency. Relief
workers, health care providers, and other volunteers are urged to provide
support for breastfeeding mothers to enable them to continue breastfeeding,
and to assist pregnant and postpartum women in initiating and sustaining
breastfeeding.

For more information, contact HMBANA at 408-998-4550 or
www.hmbana.org . Additional information can be
provided from the United States Breastfeeding Committee at 202-367-1132
(www.usbreastfeeding.org), ILCA/USLCA at
1-800-452-2478 (www.ilca.org or
www.uslca.org), or La Leche League at 847-519-7730
(www.llli.org).

Thank you so much for your inquiry re donating milk. Re your interest in Haiti donations, our available information changes hour by hour, it seems! At the time I’m writing this email, we have been informed that HMBANA Milk Banks (we are one) will be providing milk to the US Naval ship docked in Haiti operating as a “floating hospital” for earthquake survivors. So far, the Mother’s Milk Bank of Denver has not received a call for milk to be sent to Haiti. I actually do not know for certain when or if that will happen. In the meantime, we are gratefully accepting donors whose milk will be used for recipients in the United States. When or if we get the call for milk to Haiti, we will quickly respond with whatever available donor milk we have on hand.
There is a minimum donation requirement of 150 oz of milk to offset our cost of testing your blood and processing the milk. We are accepting milk as old as May 2009, as of this writing.

You can go through the initial phone screening by calling 303-869-1888. If you meet the eligibility criteria, we’ll send a packet of information and futher medical history questions for you to answer, then we send you the shipping supplies for a blood draw to be done in Utah, and the Fed Ex shipping supplies to send milk.

Our donors must be healthy, non-smoking mothers of infants under the age of 1 yr. You must have been on no medication (this includes herbs as well) while pumping your milk unless it is cleared through us first. Exceptions are: insulin, prenatal vitamins, thyroid replacement , progestin-only birth control, minerals such as calcium, magnesium and iron, and food supplements such as DHA and fish oil (omega 3).

Thank you for your interest and your compassion in helping babies in need. If you feel you might be eligible and have the minimum donation amount required to become a donor, you can call and speak with any staff member to begin the screening process.

Sincerely,

Karen Wilson, RN, IBCLC

We are desperately in need of more milk for the Denver area Mother’s Milk Bank – our freezers are running on empty most days lately, and I know there are many compassionate mothers (especially through LLL) who would love the chance to help a baby in need. I wish there was more infrastructure available and a more organized relief effort in Haiti so that we could reliably take milk for use in that country. In the meantime, financial donations to organizations that support infant and children feeding programs are most effective in supporting breastfeeding moms in Haiti so that they can continue to provide mother’s milk for their own children rather than rely on “donations” (aka advertisements) of artificial mother’s milk (see www.hmbana.org for websites). This is a serious problem during every international crisis in which breastfeeding is at risk. Fortunately, there will be some donor milk available on the USS Comfort (“the floating hospital”) immediately for those preemies and seriously ill babies receiving care there. The generous women of the Dominican Republic are also donating their milk to the survivors of Haiti, so hopefully the situation will stabilize sooner rather than later.

January Meeting

Our January Meeting marked the Murray group coming full circle. . . having begun last January. Hooray!!! The meeting was small, likely do in part to holiday travelers still being gone, as well as forgetting to send out a reminder email to our faithful mamas. . .oops! We did have one new mama, an expecting mama, who attended and we hope to see more of in coming months. We also have several mamas who were at our December meeting, expecting babies between Christmas and Valentine's Day.

In all we had 3 leaders, 1 veteran mama and 1 expecting mama. 4 toddlers and two babies were also in attendance.

Our discussion was led by Haley, who, of course, did a great job, and it was held on the topic "Baby Arrives." We made introductions and got into the subject matter, of course leaving plenty of room for the needs of our one new and expecting mom, which did not necessarily follow the subject at hand.

We answered questions with the prompt "Baby is here. ..how do i.. . . ?"
Take a shower
Have time (or desire) for intimacy
Find time for myself
Make dinner
Sleep

You know, all the important things that new mom's don't realize they are going to have to give up, or modify, when a new baby comes along. Of course most of the tips came from just being moms who had been through it all. I hope we didn't frighten away our "mama to be."

Gifts of Breastfeeding

Tuesday December 1st La Leche League of Murray held her final meeting in her first year! Hooray! What a fun an exciting year this has been. We've had so many committed moms in our group, lots of new babies, and THREE new leaders! This month we had FOUR pregnant mamas, three of whom were all first timers with our group. Three of our four leaders were there, and three returning mamas too. We had three tots, and four babes 6 months and under.

This month's discussion surrounded the "Importance" or "Benefits of Breastfeeding," and was lead by yours truly, Timbra. We started the discussion by going around to introduce ourselves, babies and due dates, and answering the question "What holiday traditions are you either starting new for your growing family, or passing down from your own upbringing." There were some really fun answers, some moms who didn't grow up with a lot of tradition but enjoyed the idea of starting some for their families, some moms struggling with WANTING to start traditions but having a hard time sticking to them, and some really fun traditions that started our of necessity, during childhood that have carried on to this day.

Because this is a season traditionally known for gift giving, the discussion was focused on "Gifts for our children and ourselves" with regards to breastfeeding. We talked over emotional gifts that breastfeeding brings, comfort, security, independence, and for mom, self confidence and "warm fuzzies." We talked about physical gifts of eyesight, brain development, hand/eye coordination, neck strength, and for mom, weight loss, ammenoria, a better focus on diet for the whole family. We talked about physiological benefits of fighting childhood and adult illnesses like diabetes and obesity, as well as for mom certain cancers and osteoperosis.

There are SO many gifts that we give our children through breastfeeding, which can not be met through anything other than physical contact and breastmilk. This list just covers some basics, but our discussion went so much further, deeper, and touched on some very serious things for some of the mothers in the group, as well as reminding or telling some of us for the first time, of the gift of breastfeeding, which is not just for baby, but also for mom and for the entire family.

Enjoy the gift, it really is the a gift that keeps on giving!

Weaning & Nutrition

Tuesday November 2. 11th Meeting of LLL of Murray.

We had 8 moms in attendance. 3 leaders, 5 returning moms (1 of whom is expecting her 1st in December). There were 4 tots and 6 babes. Liz lead the meeting on Weaning and Nutrition, and did a fabulous job.

We introduced ourselves and shared as an "ice breaker" something in our own diets we were proud of. The answers ranged from a focus on whole foods to introducing new things into the family diet that were healthier, even ingredients that the individuals previously thought they didn't even like.

Then we each took a sheet of paper with a diet discussion item on it, read it out loud and shared our own tips for the discussion item, as well as got feedback.

For the following I am stating specific ideas which were shared in the meeting, such as thoughts on "organic" eating. La Leche League's philosophy is "Good nutrition means eating a well-balanced and varied diet of foods in as close to their natural state as possible." Whole foods, organic, "dirty dozen" and "top ten" are all things that were discussed specifically at the meeting. The idea is that we are all at different places in our nutritional needs, understanding and goals, so the information shared here and at the meetings is just part of the journey to better understanding and moving towards a more balanced and healthier diet for ourselves and our families.

Tips for eating "well" on a budget: If you are interested in organic foods but can not afford to eat WHOLLY organically, find the "dirty dozen" or "top ten" list of items that are recommended for organic choosing (tubers, apples, fruits and veg with edible skin, berries, etc), consider leaning more towards a "whole food" diet instead of an "organic" diet, shop bargain bins for items you would normally put in your diet that are in dinged cans, etc. Consider purchasing artisan breads at the "day old" price and freezing them for future use, or buying up "whole foods" when they are on sale and freezing what you can or learning new recipes to incorporate them. Also consider purchasing from a co-op or CSA. This will not only help alleviate some of the cost of your whole foods, it will also push you outside of your usual box of cooking and force you to find new recipes. Think up new recipes for leftovers. Example, Last night I had some leftover noodles and leftover homemade fries in the fridge, not enough for a meal for the family, but I put a little chicken, a couple of carrots and a parsnip in some broth. . . and two previous meals, became a third meal. Leftover homemade chicken nuggets were put into a stir fry tonight. Soups are an awesome way to stretch your dollar, especially when using meats which can be expensive. Consider having a "vegetarian" night (or two) to try a variety of proteins and save on meat costs. There were a lot of really awesome tips on eating well and eating whole foods on a budget.

Tips for adding healthier foods into your family's diet: Pizza was a big topic of discussion here. Kids love pizza. It's a fun way for everyone to pick their own toppings, making your own crust you know what you're getting, just a few ingredients. It's easy to sneak dark greens into pizza sauce by wilting down kale, chard or spinach in just TBSP or 2 of water and some garlic or garlic powder and then blending it in it's own liquid. Carrot puree can also be added to red sauce (for pizzas or pastas and even into a chili base). Making food fun is another great way to get picky eaters to eat healthy, making food faces, anything through a straw, smoothies and DEFINITELY letting kids help when appropriate. It has often been said that when kids are involved in the making of their food, they are more likely to eat it.

Tips for healthy snacks for the early weeks of pregnancy: Thinking ahead. Having some whole grain crackers, or something very simple in the early weeks and being sure to eat first thing. Making meals when you are feeling well, so you're not tempted to eat poorly when you don't. Being sure to take snacks with you while you're out so that you don't feel 1)nauseous and 2) tempted to eat out.

Tips for eating well when traveling: Stock a cupboard with quick foods. Packaged foods aren't off limits, certain granola or "power" bars, easy snacks, prepackaging little bags of nuts or homemade trail mixes so you don't get bored. And again, thinking ahead.

Other thoughts: leaning towards a whole food diet, knowing what's in the food you eat (be a label reader), less is more (when a list of ingredients is concerned), make as much as you can from scratch so you know what's going into your food and into your body (or that of your children), none of us is perfect, consider an 80/20 diet (or a ratio that suits your family) 80% whole foods/healthy foods 20% indulgences. Try not to make food an "issue," and listen to your children's "needs" they are wonderful at hearing their own bodies and letting you know what nutrients they are in need of at any given time. Try for a balanced WEEK, not a balanced meal or a balanced day even, especially when it comes to tots. Have a "super hero" focused kid? Call healthy foods "grow foods" or "things that make you big and strong" and see if that doesn't persuade your Superman wannabe!

If you weren't at the meeting but are interested in a list of CSA's/Farmer's Markets/Co-ops/recipes and recipe sites that were discussed, feel free to email lllofmurray@gmail.com

Birth Control and Breastfeeding

This article was recently sent by one of our area leaders and with permission I posting it here:

We are receiving more and more reports from mothers of a decrease in milk production associated with the Mirena IUD. Today I received two such reports. Given the constant chronological relationship between the placement of the IUD and the mother’s decrease in milk production (1 to 2 weeks), it is quite possible that the decrease in milk production is a result of the IUD.

Of course, it is also likely that not all women will have a significant decrease; nobody contacts me when they don’t have a decreased production. But it is also likely that only a tiny percentage of women who do have a decrease actually contact me.

I think we need to be prudent and warn women about this possible side effect of the Mirena. All hormonal contraceptive methods should be avoided by breastfeeding mothers if possible.

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC

Avoiding Difficulties

This month's meeting was lead by Haley, our newest leader. Our discussion was Avoiding Difficulties. We had 9 in attendance, one pregnant mother, three with newborns, a "regular" and 4 leaders, plus three tots and 7 babes.

We began with introductions and answering the question "What is one thing you have done, are doing or are going to do, to take time JUST for you?" Answers ranged from taking classes, exercising, bubble baths, and finding time to read to going to the symphony.

Our Series Discussion centered around fact or fiction statements that we each had on slips of paper. We went around the room reading off such myths as. . . .
~I have to wean because I have mastitis: In fact it is best to continue to nurse through mastitis, maybe even more often than "normal" (whatever is normal for you and baby). This will help with engorgement. If it is painful to nurse on the effected side, you may pump until infection subsides, or try nursing on the other side until let-down, so baby is not sucking so vigorously to begin, on effected side.
~I have to wean because I'm on medication: many medications are compatable with breastfeeding. Be sure to discuss the importance of continuing to breastfeed, with your doctor, to find a suitable solution. Contact a LLL leader, she will either read to you directly from Medication and Mother's milk, or direct you to a leader who has a copy of this book.
~My baby is lean, so he's not getting enough and I have to supplement: Those growth charts are not based on breastfed baby "stats." Long and lean may just be your baby's body type. To be sure baby is getting enough from your milk, ask yourself if baby is having enough wet/dirty diapers each day (6-8 wet), is baby growing and is baby showing signs of meeting developmental milestones. If the answer to any of these is "no" you may want to consider how to add extra calories. You can fortify your baby's milk with your own milk by pumping and "skimming" the fattier hindmilk from your pumped milk, and adding this to your baby's "diet." Therefore, fortifying your own milk. (LLL does suggest holding off on artificial nipples until 4-6 weeks or until breastfeeding is well established. You can give baby pumped milk by cup, spoon, syringe or finger feeding).
~Putting cereal in night time formula will help baby sleep better & longer: There is no absolute method to making baby sleep longer and better. In fact, cereals make it difficult for baby to absorb iron from your breastmilk and cause a bloated tummy. If baby needs to eat during the night or baby needs mom during the night, it is appropriate for baby to wake and let you know.

Many other myths were shared and dispelled. Not sure if something you've heard is a fact or fiction with regards to breastfeeding? Check out one of our monthly meetings and a LLL leader will be happy to spend some one-on-one time with you after the meeting, or even answer your questions during the meeting when appropriate.

During the meeting a leader met with one mom who had a very upset baby. It was their first outing together, alone. And after the meeting another set of leaders helped a mother with latch questions.

Our group will be changing as the winter months come upon us. Jaclyn has already begun a group in Tooele and been meeting for a couple of months with mothers out there. So she will continue her local group and join the Murray group when the weather permits. Liz is involved to some extent with the Layton group and will also be trying to stay more local when weather is poor, joining us when weather permits. Timbra and Haley will be the two leaders left to leading meetings with the Murray group on a regular basis. We are excited about having a new leader with our group, the start of the new Tooele group and the possibility of our leaders starting other groups throughout the area in the future. Thank you to all the awesome moms who make up our group. I am enabling comments from now on, they will be answered privately and will not show up on our blog.

New Addition & New Arrival

Timbra is pleased to announce that a second baby girl joined their family August 24th.

And as of October, we have a fourth leader with our Murray group. . . Haley. Congrats on your hard work Haley!