(C) El Paso Matters.org
This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



El Paso moms donate breast milk to give vulnerable babies a lifeline [1]

['Priscilla Totiyapungprasert', 'More Priscilla Totiyapungprasert', 'El Paso Matters', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width']

Date: 2024-02-26  

Nurse Cecilia Lindsey informed Dr. Maria Theresa Villanos the milk fridge was empty on a Thursday afternoon. The nurses and nutritionists at the El Paso medical clinic had packed and shipped out the boxes of frozen breastmilk that morning, where the supply would make its way to Mother’s Milk Bank in Austin for processing and distribution.

Some of that nutrient-rich donor milk might make its way back to a neonatal intensive care unit in El Paso, where every drop of “liquid gold” counts for high-risk newborns, Villanos said.

Since opening in January, the milk depot at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso has collected 700 ounces of donor milk, or about 5 ½ gallons, according to a log sheet shared with El Paso Matters. Villanos, a pediatrician and director of the TTUHSC El Paso medical clinic, oversees the program.

A 2019 study shows breast milk can help premature infants develop a healthy gut microbiome, with fewer disease-causing pathogens than from formula. In a 2021 study, researchers associate mother’s own milk to numerous health benefits for their underweight baby, including lower incidences of chronic lung disease, neurodevelopmental impairment and necrotizing enterocolitis, a life-threatening gastrointestinal illness. Breast milk can also be easier for infants to digest than formula.

Villanos said there’s multiple reasons why a mother may not be able to produce enough breast milk.

“If you have a baby that is extremely premature and you’re not ready to deliver that baby yet, your production of breast milk may also be delayed,” Villanos said. “You have twins or triplets? The amount of milk you produce may not be enough to feed two or three babies. Your stress alone from having a baby in the NICU could directly impact the production of milk.”

Pediatrician Maria Theresa Villanos explains how lactating women can be approved to donate breast milk at the Texas Tech Physicians clinic, Wednesday, Feb. 14. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

If a mother can’t produce a sufficient amount of breast milk and there’s a medical necessity, doctors can prescribe pasteurized human donor milk to babies both in and out of the hospital. But donor milk is in limited supply and prioritized for the most fragile babies.

This has led El Paso mothers who struggle to pump or breastfeed their babies at home to turn to informal avenues, such as asking a family member to breastfeed or bartering with locals for donor milk online. Community-based milk sharing comes with safety risks, but helps fill the gap for lower risk babies who tolerate breast milk better than formula and mothers who prefer breast milk over formula.

How to donate breast milk

El Paso hospitals are purchasing donor milk, but there aren’t many people in the area giving it, said Kim Updegrove, executive director of Mothers’ Milk Bank in Austin. In 2022 and 2023, the nonprofit shipped 48,000 ounces of donor milk to El Paso, Updegrove said.

“It’s a truly unique way to volunteer and help improve the health status of your community by doing what your body is naturally doing,” Updegrove said.

While the milk bank paid for shipping materials and delivery, individual donors still had to package and mail their own milk to Austin. Opening a milk depot in El Paso is more convenient for donors because they just have to drop off their milk, Updegrove said.

A depot acts as a collection site for a milk bank, which handles testing, pasteurization and distribution.

Pediatrician Maria Theresa Villanos stands at the secure refrigerator where donated milk can be collected and then shipped to Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin, where it is distributed back to babies in the border region for whom breast milk has been prescribed, Wednesday, Feb. 14. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

To become a registered donor in El Paso, mothers who’ve given birth within a year can apply online at milkbank.org to go through a free screening process.

Potential donors are screened for illnesses and medication they’re taking. A mother with HIV, for example, can pass the virus through breast milk.

Once approved, donors should bring their frozen milk, date of milk collection and donor registration number to the third floor of the TTUHSC El Paso medical clinic at 4801 Alberta Ave.

The clinic also has a lactation room should mothers want to pump on site, Villanos said.

Villanos encourages donors to only bring milk that’s less than eight months old. Breast milk is safe to consume if it’s been frozen for up to a year, but certain nutrients may decrease after time, Villanos said.

The university provides staff and labor, while Mothers’ Milk Bank covers the cost of shipping. The milk bank also provides a refrigerator to store the milk and materials such as additional milk bags for mothers.

Once in Austin, Mothers’ Milk Bank goes through testing and pasteurization, a process that removes bacteria that could be harmful to fragile babies, but still keeps most of the factors that support the immune system. The bank then distributes bottled milk throughout Texas and a few other states.

The cost of breast milk

El Paso lactation consultant Lizabeth “Libby” Berkeley said she’s been trying to start a milk bank in El Paso for years. The closest one to El Paso is at the government-run women’s hospital in Ciudad Juárez.

Berkeley ran a “baby cafe” at TTUHSC El Paso to provide mothers with lactation support before she retired and the university shut it down in 2017.

Since retirement, Berkeley has volunteered her time with a new breastfeeding support group that recently moved into Luna Tierra Birth Center in Central El Paso. Berkeley holds a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and an IBCLC certification, which means she completed her training through the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners.

Human donor milk is critical for premature infants in NICU. (Courtesy of Mothers’ Milk Bank)

In the late 2010s, Berkeley led a feasibility study for El Paso Children’s Hospital to assess whether El Paso needed a milk bank. While women in El Paso were excited about the idea, the cost estimate came to more than $1 million and the hospital scrapped the idea, Berkeley said.

“It’s like a dairy,” Berkeley said. “You have the homogenization and pasteurization and huge freezers and a system for storing milk where all the samples are the same. It’s expensive to buy all the equipment.”

For-profit milk distributors are connected to milk banks that pay donors. But it is against guidelines set by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America for nonprofit milk banks to compensate donors, meaning people who give milk to the El Paso milk depot do not receive payment.

Updegrove recognizes that pumping milk is a labor intensive activity and described donations as a gift of compassion.

Mothers’ Milk Bank charges hospitals the cost of processing the milk, which is $4.65 per ounce, she said.

While the majority of milk sent to El Paso in the last two years went to hospitals, one at-risk baby with a prescription also received donor milk. The milk bank covers the cost of individual requests for babies with medical needs and whose parents lack financial resources, Updegrove said.

Online community offers alternatives

For mothers with lower risk and healthy babies who don’t qualify for donor milk, the internet provides other options.

Facebook groups such as The Badass Breastfeeders of El Paso and Human Milk 4 Human Babies – Texas Group provide a space for mothers to ask for breastfeeding advice and trade baby supplies for breast milk.

These two groups prohibit the sale of breast milk, which is an unregulated industry. People can barter, however.

Sisters Blanca, left, and Bella Luna share the joys and trials of breastfeeding with their babies, who were born just weeks apart. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Socorro resident Chrissy Casey is one of many moms who’ve traded their excess milk for diapers in The Badass Breastfeeders of El Paso.

“I’m not asking for a bunch of money for it,” Casey said. “Just recognize that my time is there.”

Casey said her 3-month-old son had difficulty latching after he was born because of a lip tie and was losing rapid weight. In response, she began pumping and bottle feeding, buying freezer bags for milk and spending four-and-a-half hours a day attached to a breast pump.

After fixing her son’s lip tie, she was able to reintroduce breastfeeding. But now she has a freezer full of excess milk and no room for food, Casey said. Through Facebook, she connected to multiple women to offload her supply.

Villanos said she doesn’t want to discount the benefits of informal milk sharing, a practice that has been going on for thousands of years. She recommends mothers evaluate the potential risks since the milk is not tested for viruses or bacteria. Families can talk to their doctor so they can make informed decisions about feeding their infants.

Berkeley said that while she doesn’t facilitate informal milk sharing, she has a professional interest in making baby feeding safer. She recommends that beneficiaries of informal donations ask for a blood panel that can indicate potential concerns, such as a sexually transmitted infection the mother might not be aware of.

A secure refrigerator, with precise temperature control and lock-protected access, holds donated breast milk in the Texas Tech Physician’s Clinic in El Paso until it can be shipped to Austin for storage and distribution. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

After learning about the milk depot, El Paso resident Annemarie Long said she would consider becoming a milk donor. Her daughter just turned 10 months old. Her pump sessions have shortened to three to four times a day, about half an hour or longer each session. But she still considers herself an “overproducer.”

Long said with her first child she sold her breast milk for a dollar an ounce to one woman, and donated milk to another mother who had a sick baby and relied on donor milk. She didn’t have a job at the time, so the compensation helped out with groceries.

Now she just tries to give it away. Her freezer is full and she doesn’t want to throw her supply away.

“I’m very thankful I’m an overproducer and able to help out others,” Long said. “I know there are a lot of people out there who aren’t as fortunate, so to be able to feed mine and other babies, it just makes me feel really thankful.”

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/02/26/breast-milk-bank-el-paso-collection-ttuhsc-el-paso/

Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/