IMPORTANT

BREASTFEEDERS ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

OUR SICK

AND

FALTERING BABIES

ARE IN URGENT NEED YOUR

HELP

DO YOU HAVE A GOOD SUPPLY OF MILK, NEVER HAD A BLOOD TRANSFUSION, DON’T SMOKE AND CAN SPARE A SMALL AMOUNT OF TIME TO DONATE TO A WORTHWHILE CAUSE?

IF SO PLEASE CONTACT THE ONLY

MILK BANK

TO COVER THE WHOLE OF IRELAND

HUMAN MILK BANK

Member of UKAMB (United Kingdom Assoc. of Milk Banking)

UNIT 2, THE CORNSHEDS

MILL STREET

IRVINESTOWN

CO FERMANAGH

BT92 1GR

Tel; 028 686 28333 (U.K.)

048 686 28333 (ROI)

E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

All it takes is 2 – 3 Simple Steps.

1. Contact us by telephone to answer a 10min Questionnaire.

2. Arrange to have a blood test taken at the beginning & end of donation (if you wish to be a continuous donator).

WELCOME TO

IRVINESTOWN HUMAN MILK BANK

STAGES TO BECOMING A MILK DONOR

Ring Milk Bank to organise completion of medical form

If milk already collected to be given as a once of donation, then starter pack and blood tests info (GP to do) sent out

If no milk collected yet, then starter pack and blood tests done first

Millk then sent to the bank

Collecting Milk for the Bank

The Bank issues pre-sterile bottles, place your name and starting date on the bottle. These bottles can be filled in layers ie

· Place milk in bottle, allow to cool in fridge and then freeze.

· Store in ice cream tub or plastic bag in freezer.

· Next day’s chill down milk and place chilled milk onto frozen milk.

When your freezer is full contact the milk bank for a transport box

Milk Bank Newsletter

March 2008

Newsletter

I look down on my baby’s face

As he suckles at my breast

In which the nourishment of my milk does give

In my arms’ embrace

We gaze upon each other in

Love’s unspoken voice

And share in this special

Bond we have

I truly do rejoice

So come on all you

Mums out there and give it at least one go

And share this special bond

Only you and your little one will know

So gaze upon you Baby’s face and imprint it on your mind

And keep it there forever or until the end of time

Welcome to our 11^th Newsletter from the milk bank.

Congratulations to the 178 donors we recruited last year, of which 21 had lost their babies we recruited Last year it was such an exceptionally busy year, for the whole year we issued  880  litres of milk to 16units around Ireland, helping  494  babies, of which there were 53 sets of twins and 1 set of triplets.  Not all of our milk went to Neo-Natal Units, a lot of it was used by units treating babies with gut problems absorbing formula, so donor milk is used to help get these babies home.

Some of our donors are reunited through their babies.

Their baby is given donor milk when they are not well and when all is going as it should, they are so grateful, they decide to become a donor.  One lady was in this situation; her baby needed three bottles of donor milk, when she herself was unwell.  Once mum’s breastfeeding was established she started collecting milk and sent in 30 bottles as a thank you to the bank.

We would like to thank all our donors both past and present for all their hard work and determination in finding the time to donate.  In particular this year we have had some extremely tremendous stars (you know who you are) who have exceeded all expectations and wowed us with their staggering volumes of milk.

Donors frequently ask us why they have never heard or seen anything about the milk bank.  I can assure you with what limited resources we have we are trying desperately to get the Milk Bank known to all and sundry.  This past year Ann has done many television and radio interviews, breastfeeding awareness conferences, our leaflets are distributed to all maternity hospitals, but mainly it’s through yourselves the donors we receive the most recruits, just by talking to other mums and people makes them aware of the Milk Bank.

A big THANK YOU go’s out to all the wonderful people who helped raise funds for the Milk Bank, we are truly grateful and we have been able to purchase a new freezer to store milk.  A special vote of thanks to Beleek Mum & Toddler group, where two of our donors organised an evening on baking, as a fund raiser for the bank.

A Former Baby’s story

We have heard from a mummy about a baby born at 25 weeks who was on mummy’s milk plus donor milk and is now 2 ½ years old and reached all his milestones without any complications along the way.

One Mummy’s Story

Her baby was born at 28 weeks and was very poorly.  Her baby was given donated breast milk to help.  Mummy wrote in to thank all the mummy’s who donated, because now her baby is 21 months old, corrected age and developmentally up to scratch.  Since the initial first illness, baby has never been ill again and Mummy put it down to the fact that baby was given donated breast milk.

This first half of the year has also been exceptionally sad.  We have had a total of 21 mummies donate to the bank who have lost their babies.  Most of these babies were very premature at 24-26 weeks gestation and their milk has all been labelled and used in the Neo-Natal Units for very premature babies.

One mother showed exceptional courage when she phoned the bank.  She had been told her baby would not survive after birth due to Severe Birth Deformation. But in previous pregnancies she had always had loads of milk, and wanted to donate after this baby was born so that some good came of this pregnancy.  Milk from this baby was then sent to help babies recovering after gut surgery.

Three little babies also did not survive due to major heart defects and their mummy’s milk has all gone off to help other tiny babies, who also had heart problems.

Lots of girls have asked us how the milk bank works after the initial taking of a donor history and bloods.  We now have 2 classes of donors, as the Department of Health has requested that we alter the way we recruit donors.  Now if a donor rings and they have a freezer of milk this is logged as a one off donation and we just do one blood test, but if a donor is going to be a long term donor we have to check their bloods at the beginning and end of their donation to ensure that there have been no changes.

The bank also has to archive the last donation of milk and keep this for eleven years to comply with these new regulations, so we ask all donors to confirm with us that they have completed their donation.

·        Milk is taken into the bank and kept until the donor bloods are clear.

·        It is then defrosted, checked for bacteria, protein and fat content.  All the milk has to be pasteurised under U.K. regulations, to kill HIV should a donor have sero converted, cytomegalovirus or T.B.

·        After it is pasteurised it is again checked for bacteria, both aerobically and anaerobically.

Only clear milk can then be issued to the units and it is issued on special labels – colostrums, premature or mature milk so that the hospitals can use the most appropriate for the babies in their care.

On these labels we also ask the hospitals to tell us how many babies received milk from each bottle and this is how we know how many babies our donors have helped.

Parents of a Baby – Thank You

One set of parents have asked us to pass on their thanks from their son Jack.

Jack at birth was found to have multiple blockages in his gut. These all had to be surgically removed, leaving little Jack with short gut syndrome and therefore difficulty in absorbing anything other than breast milk.  Then the surgeons discovered that poor Jack had bladder problems too.  His bladder had to be raised up and then drained via a special tube from his abdomen.  Due to the difficulties with Jack’s anatomy, Jack was left with a colostomy right next to his bladder opening, so it was he was tried on formula, unfortunately he developed awful dithered which then infected his bladder opening.

Jack’s mummy pumped and pumped to express much needed breast milk for him, but with the need for constant hospital admissions and the constant stresses of his problems her supply slowly dwindled.

Jack was seen by the dietician and the surgeons on many occasions and as human milk was all he could properly absorb he had to stay on breast milk.  Thanks to all our donors Jack had a total of six months of help on donor milk.  During this time his gut grew and grew with all the human growth hormone and at six months of age he had corrective surgery.

After the surgery the unit tried Jack on formula milk, but again the diahorea started again, but Jack settled on his donor milk and then started to tolerate the formula and is now a thriving lad who enjoys his spoon feeds and his parents express their heart felt gratitude to all our donors for making this possible.

Baby Leon’s Mums Story

Leon was our first child and it was all planned in our mind a perfect baby, with rosy cheeks born after a wonderful and fulfilling pregnancy………. But it wasn’t to be

My waters broke 4 months early on a normal morning at work, and I was admitted to the Hospitals NICU Ward.  Leon was born in pretty dramatic circumstances surrounded by no less than 7 midwives, obstetricians, neonatologists and more….  Leon received intense care, was resuscitated and quickly whisked away from us before we got a chance to see him, and realise he actually was a boy.  Eventually we saw him some four hours later and got the biggest shock of our lives, he was so tiny and looked so out of place …

We had to be transferred to another hospital that had the facilities to care for more extremely premature, low birth weight babies like Leon.  The whole thing was pretty dramatic, Leon had survived his first 36 hours of life, and we were being told to prepare for things that I was nowhere near ready to accept.  A Lactation midwife came to my room, equipped with scary looking equipment, informing me that to give Leon the best possible fighting chance, breast milk was crucial.  I immediately started expressing and expressed my milk for five months until Leon was able to feed himself from the breast.

Leon’s first 6 weeks were traumatic, with intra ventricular haemorrhage, pneumonia, respiratory distress syndrome, interstitial emphysema, high and low blood pressure, high blood sugar, various episodes of infection, multiple blood transfusions and more.  But at this stage we had our first long awaited hug and few days later, following 3 attempts; he managed to be weaned off the ventilator.

After several months and many heart stopping moments,  Leon came home which was an all new challenge in itself, but here he is today, weighing over 14 pounds, still breastfeeding and despite all he went through, is a happy, smiley and chatty child - Our special little boy

Being told about the healing qualities breastmilk supplied and knowing from my own and Leon’s experiences, I soon decided that if I had enough quantities of milk I would donate to babies and for mums who were less fortunate than myself, by being unable to express or feed their own babies.

Another baby who was supplied with breast milk as the baby had developed NEC (a life threatening gut condition) and the hospital wanted to make sure that this did not happen again.  But mum could not provide her own milk as she needed Chemotherapy.  Donor milk was provided until he was over the risk time of NEC.

Baby Ellie’s Story

Recently baby Ellie became a Special Case for the milk bank.  Ellie was born very premature and mummy unfortunately had to have both her breasts removed.  Ellie’s auntie bravely stepped in and became her other mummy as well as being a mummy to her own baby.

What else have we noticed?  The hospitals send us written requests for milk for their premature babies.  The bank has noticed more and more milk going to babies who weighed 510g – 540g and were born as 24 – 25 weeks gestation, very tiny customers for the bank.

Have we helped the Polish milk bank?  The milk bank has quite a large number of Polish donors as well as donors from Russia, Brazil, France, USA, so we were not surprised when two ladies arrived at the milk bank from Warsaw.  They cam and saw how all the donated milk is handled and dispatched here and are now ready to get a similar milk bank running in Warsaw.

Ann spoke at a World Wide Conference on milk banking in Chester and presented on how to track milk along with the Toronto milk bank from Canada.  A lot of interest was shown in our bank as it is one of very few that provides milk to several countries.

Good new her for some local research that we have done in the bank.  Many of our donors had told us how they were cleaning their shells and pumps with good hot soapy water and keeping these dry and stored in clean plastic boxes before the next use.  The milk bank has now adopted this practice for all donors and as a result the cleanliness of the milk has drastically improved.

We have to say a special thank you to one donor who is trying for the world record in distance donation and brought her milk from the United States to Ireland for use here where it has helped five babies in Dublin.