Growing Your Baby - Parenthood from Pregnancy to Pre-school » breast milk donation

Breast Milk Cheese Served At Art Show

Lisa — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 04:07:16 +0000

Breast milk cheese and crackers are were on the menu last night at the launch of a wacky London art exhibition.

The artist, Raul Ortega Ayala named the show “Alejandra Ortiz-Reynoso”, after the woman who donated the milk.

According to the artist the cheese is designed to “explore our first encounter with food, emphasizing its territoriality and boundaries”.

A spokeswoman said: “He makes the cheese in the normal way – it’s just a standard process.

The cheese was served simply, with a more traditional accompaniment of crackers.

I wish the world would give up their obsession with breast milk. It was not created to make ice cream, butter, cheese or Swiss delicacies. Breast milk’s purpose is to provide a baby with total nutrition because they are not able to have anything else.

It is just sick to me that ‘artists’ or chefs want to use it for adult consumption.

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Women Volunteer to Breast-Feed Motherless Infant

Lisa — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:35:31 +0000

Charles Moses Martin Goodrich was born at 3:26 a.m. Jan. 11 at Marquette General Hospital. Eleven hours after giving birth, his mother Susan Goodrich, 46, died of amniotic fluid embolism – a rare obstetric emergency that is not age-related. Still in shock over his wife’s death, Robbie Goodrich realized he had to figure out a way to feed his newborn son.

“They didn’t carry any breast milk,” the history professor said about the hospital, so a nurse looked into getting some for Moses. As it turned out, the nearest place to get breast milk was in Kalamazoo, and it would take several days to have it delivered to Marquette.

In the meantime, he received a phone call from family friend who was still nursing her fourth child, 1-year-old Emily. In her message, she offered Goodrich to nurse Moses.

That’s when the new dad realized he wanted the baby to be nursed. It’s something that his wife would have wanted.

Together with the help of a family friend, Nicoletta Fraire, Robbie made contact with Sally Keskey, founder of the Yooper Nursers – a local breast feeding support group. Within a brief time, nearly 20 women were found who offered to breast-feed Moses.

A schedule was put together with feeding times at 9 a.m., noon, 1:30 , 4 , 6:30 and 8 p.m. Six times a day a different mother has been feeding Moses for the past two months. During the night, Robbie bottle-feeds his son breast milk that was pumped by the women.

The busy dad says that having the women come to his house to nurse Moses and often bringing their own children, has been good for him.

“These are deeply caring individuals who spend time and work with me,” he said. “They’ve all treated me with the utmost graciousness and empathy.”

If he can find enough mothers willing to provide breast milk, Robbie hopes to continue nursing Moses until he is a year old.

It is amazing to me that Moses has not had nipple confusion issues. Not only does each woman have a different sized and shape nipple, but everyone breast feeds differently. How does this baby adapt to six different women a day?

The dedication of the donation moms is something that is not often found especially when all of these women probably have babies under two.

PHOTOCREDIT:Andy Nelson-Zaleski VIA SOURCE

Peta Asks Ben and Jerry To Use Breast Milk In Their Ice Cream

Lisa — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:40:17 +0000

In a weird twist, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow’s milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

The idea got a less than warm reception from the Vermont company and even La Leche League International, the world’s oldest breast-feeding support organization.

PETA wrote a letter to company founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield on Tuesday, telling them cow’s milk is hazardous and that milking them is cruel.

“If Ben and Jerry’s replaced the cow’s milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers – and cows – would reap the benefits,” wrote Tracy Reiman, executive vice president of the animal rights advocacy group. She said dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies and obesity.

In an e-mail Ben and Jerry’s spokesperson Sean Greenwood responded by saying,

“We applaud PETA’s novel approach to bringing attention to an issue, but we believe a mother’s milk is best used for her child.”

According to La Leche spokeswoman Jane Crouse, cow’s milk and mother’s milk aren’t interchangeable. Breast milk is a dynamic substance that’s different with each woman and each child and might have difficulty being processed into ice cream.

She went on to say that,

“Some women feel compelled to donate milk to a milk bank for adopted babies, or for someone who’s ill or unable to breast feed. There’s plenty of anecdotal evidence about sisters who nurse each others’ babies. There’s a population of women very willing to share their milk. Whether there’s enough to do it for a commercial entity, who can say?”

Clearly, PETA has not done their research on this subject. Human breast milk is NOTHING like cow’s milk infact, depending on the mother’s diet and ethnic background EBM can be different colours.

I learned this while my son was in the NICU. While putting our milk in the freezer one day, I caught a glance at other moms milk. One was a dark brownish in color, another yellow and one even had breast milk that had a greenish tinge to it.

Do you want this in your ice cream?

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Swiss Restaurant Changes Plans To Cook With Breast Milk

Lisa — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:24:14 +0000

A gourmet chef’s plans to whip up a number of delicacies using human breast milk have changed after authorities stepped in and threatened lawsuits against the chef and any potential donor willing to pump for cash.

Hans Lochen, proprietor of the Storchen restaurant in Iberg, Switzerland, advertised in German newspapers seeking women willing to sell him their milk, offering about 10 pounds per liter of milk.

The crazy chef had been doing a little private recipe testing, he claims. Preparing such entrees as breast milk lamb curry and antelope steak with chanterelle sauce spiked with cognac and breast milk had drawn rave reviews: his friends loved the creamy entrees, Locher says.

Swiss officials were surprised by an apparent loophole in the regulations which did not seem to address the issue of cooking with breast milk. The authorities ruled that Locher would not be able to store the human milk properly nor guarantee that it was fresh and safe for consumption.

They threatened lawsuits if he proceeds with the plans of introducing the novel recipes to the public. Locher nursed his bruised ego by making it known that he didn’t understand what all the fuss was bout.

“I don’t understand all the controversy,” he said. “The mother’s milk is the most natural thing in the world – how can anyone be against it?”

Ughh… Breast Milk really? The thought of it throws me off and I am pro-breast feeding. If he was allowed to prepare his original recipes, would you eat at this restaurant?

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Preemie Mom Donates Record Amount Of Breast Milk

Lisa — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 22:16:22 +0000

Delivering her twins 3 1/2 months early has changed Kelley Durrant’s life.

“When Ressa and Cameron were born their bodies could pretty much fit in our hands, and their skin was so almost translucent looking,” their dad Leo Durrant recalled.

Sadly, Ressa passed away from an infection three weeks later.

Her parents remember saying goodbye to their tiny daughter with the determined personality.

“At the moment it was probably one of the hardest things, probably the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through,” Leo admitted. “But looking back, I don’t have any bitterness or really not any sorrow about that day in particular.”

Committed to the cause of helping other babies who struggle to live, Kelly pumped — in memory of her daughter — at work and even while on vacation.

Her determination was so strong that Saturday she marked a milestone with her final donation to Mother’s Milk Bank of North Texas — 100 gallons of breast milk.

The Milk Bank said that Kelly’s donation — 17 months worth of milk for a baby — is unprecedented.

The giving mom is just happy that she could help other babies and give them the chance to survive or a little bit of a boost.

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New Moms Donate Breast Milk To Micro-Preemie

Lisa — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:21:32 +0000

Isabella Sciulli was born 3 months early weighing 1 pound, 4 and two-thirds ounces.

At birth, doctors told her parents that the she would have the best chance of survival if she had breast milk.

Determined to see her daughter thrive, Kim Sciulli pumped 8 times a day.

“Barely anything came out,” Jerry Sciulli of Pittsburgh, Pa., said. “Barely anything. She would tap the bottle to get every drop out … she would say it’s liquid gold.”

“After Isabella was born, I saw all of her determination, making sure she pumped eight times a day,” Sciulli said of his wife. “Sometimes I would say ’seven times is good, you’re not gonna lose your milk tomorrow.’ [Kim] said, no, it has to be eight … it didn’t matter what time. She had to get eight pumps in.”

The baby started to grow.

Without warning or reason, Kim unexpectedly collapsed and died.

Baby Isabella was still in intensive care and about to run out of breast milk. Formula was an option, but it didn’t have the antibodies to protect against illness. Most important, Kim’s friends knew it wasn’t what she wanted. So friends contacted the International Breast Milk Project, a group of mothers who donate their breast milk to orphans in Africa.

Today, all of Isabella’s milk comes from donating mothers.

“Knowing that this milk came from people across the country; I wish it were her mother’s but that’s the next best option,” the baby’s father said.

He says he feels humbled that people are producing milk for her — something he can’t do to nourish his baby but other mothers can.

Isabella was released from hospital in Monday. She weighed in at 6lbs.

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