Posted on 09/24/2006 3:38:13 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o
BLOOMINGTON – The first of several breast milk collection sites has opened as part of a state plan intended in part to benefit ill and premature infants.
State health commissioner Judy Monroe attended Friday’s opening of Indiana’s first “breast milk depot” at a Women, Infants and Children office in Bloomington. She said similar depots will open next year at three other WIC offices in Indiana.
Women visiting such depots can donate pumped breast milk that will be given to Indiana Mothers’ Milk Bank in Indianapolis, one of 10 such banks in the United States.
The bank provides screened, pasteurized breast milk to infants who are unable to receive milk from their own mothers. Breast milk contains nutrients researchers say can spur a child’s physical and mental growth and which are not found in cow milk-derived formula.
“Making breast milk more readily available through these milk depots will result in healthier babies and can save the state millions of dollars,” Monroe said.
Rebecca Shaffer, a Hagerstown mother of three boys, has been donating breast milk for the past five months. During that time, she’s pumped, frozen and shipped more than 11 gallons of breast milk to the facility, established in August 2005.
“My husband lovingly refers to me as the dairy queen,” she said, holding 7-month-old son Grant in her arms. “I’m nursing Grant, but I’m just blessed with a lot of excess milk.”
Shaffer pumps milk for about half an hour every morning and freezes it in sterile 4-ounce jars provided by the milk bank. Every six weeks, she loads the bottles into her car and drives an hour to the milk bank in Indianapolis.
Monroe said Bloomington’s milk depot, and other depots scheduled to open next year, will help Indiana achieve the goals of a state breast-feeding plan created last year by a task force.
“By 2010, we hope to have 75 percent of the state’s infants breast-fed when they are discharged from the hospital,” she said. “Right now, it’s only 64 percent.”
The goals also call for 50 percent of Indiana’s babies to continue to breast-feed for six months, and 15 percent to breast-feed for one year.
Mary Alexander, executive director of Indiana Mothers’ Milk Bank, said the ideal donor is a mother who has excess milk and a young infant. Donors are not paid for their milk.
Another example of "un-intelligent design"?
Utter Ridiculous!
It is difficult to imagine that milk designed for baby cows is equally good for humans.
Mothers who adopt children, for one.
I've kind of given up on my dream of becoming a brassiere fitting consultant due to the rampant bigotry and descrimination in the retail industry.
"The goals also call for 50 percent of Indiana’s babies to continue to breast-feed for six months, and 15 percent to breast-feed for one year."
I'm witholding judgement. I've never breast fed. I adopted my son when he was three and off the teat and potty trained. I highly recommend this option, LOL!
Calpernia? Does this kind of thing tie in with the Healthy Families 2020 and the NAIS stuff? Just curious. I realize breast feeding isn't governmentally mandated...yet. ;)
Breast milk is perfectly formulated for the baby. In fact, a nursing mother will respond to her baby's needs in almost all cases. Formula is cow's milk and will never have all the nutrients in human milk. If they make a mistake at the formula factory, children can suffer permanent damage.
This fact alone should make people believe in Creation.
Hmmmmm?
How long before the mommies can just drop off their little ones at a lactation station and come back for them hours later, after the milk has worked its way through the system and into a Clinton Legacy container?
Breast milk not only has all the nutrients that the newborn needs but it also has human immuneglobulins to help the baby enhance his/her immune system.
I've got the hands for it... ;)
Boy.......you REALLY like your breast pump.
I feel so poor, I only have a Medella pump.
Sigh.
tell that to my cat.
Rofl! Go away - no men allowed on boob threads (unless you ARE one!) :P
In my case, I wasn't able to nurse my younger daughter very well. She was in ICU for almost 2 weeks and I pumped (like the dr told me to) and supplied her with milk. But when she got home I was in full-on mode and she was content with an ounce at a time. I was in constant pain and she and I just did not get on a schedule at all. Then I developed mastitis and she went back to the hospital and all in all, it was a disaster.
That was me, I'm sure there are many other reasons out there.
You had to ruin a good thing, with that picture. That's enough to make a decent woman's milk dry up.
gag!
When I had my preemie, I went through a rather traumatic experience and my milk dried up.
Plus, the breast pump is not exactly inspiring at the best of times.
I disagree. Wet-nurses were paid servants employed by wealthy families to relieve the elite mothers' "burden". Or hired by wealthy widowers whose wives died in childbirth.
These new facilities are stocked with volunteers' donations to anonymous recipients. A significant difference in my book.
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