Operation Foster Milk and Eats on Feets Philippines

When Naima was younger and my milk was plentiful, I used to donate milk to various persons/organizations, foremost of which is the UP-PGH's Milk Bank. I recently received an email from Dr. Jessa Sareno asking for milk donations for their NICU babies.

Dr. Jessa is one of the fellows at the PGH Neonatology Unit. I asked her why they had so many patients needing milk and I was wondering where the mothers were. She shared that usually, the mothers are discharged before the babies and go home - often to the South, e.g. Cavite. These moms are asked to express milk at home then visit their babies daily so they can leave the expressed milk and directly nurse their babies.

Sadly, however, the moms are unable to scrape up enough money for even just the jeepney fare to PGH. Thus, it often takes a week or so before the mom can come back to visit her baby. I would also imagine that even if moms are asked to express milk at home, most of them are not able to do so because of lack of storage facilities or the need to go back to work (with no milk expression time/facilities) to provide for the needs of their other children. Thus, the never-ending request by the UP-PGH to ask lactating moms with excess milk to donate to their milk bank.

Meanwhile, for moms needing breastmilk, I was able to get some information about Fabella Milk Bank. You can purchase milk from their milk bank at the cost of P400 per 200ml. However, breastmilk is not always available as this depends whether they have ward mothers donating breastmilk. The milk is pasteurized and tested. Before you can buy however, you need to bring a medical abstract of your baby. The ward mothers are eager to donate breastmilk because donors receive a huge discount off their hospital bills. Sometimes, they only pay P50! To get in touch with the Fabella Milk Bank, call 734-5561 local 156.

Finally, because of this blog, I have been receiving numerous requests for milk and offers of excess milk. I had previously toyed with the idea of having a milk share page, where moms can meet up to discuss milk requirements - but never found the time to do so. I stumbled upon the Eats on Feets Global Network and with the help of the global founder, Emma Kwasnica, I was able to set up Eats on Feets Philippines - a facebook page. The Eats on Feets GLOBAL network chapter pages provide an online space to facilitate woman-to-woman milk sharing. Through this page, moms can post their requests and offers for milk and hook up with one another. I'm still looking for an administrator and if you're interested in becoming an administrator of this page, please do contact me. Check out the press release sent out by Emma early this morning:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :


CONTACT :
Emma Kwasnica
Eats On Feets GLOBAL
(514) 656 1560
Montreal, CANADA
http://www.facebook.com/emma.kwasnica
emma.kwasnica@gmail.com



World's Largest Breast Milk Sharing Network Spreads Across Facebook: "Eats On Feets" Goes Global

Within a matter of days, women around the world have mobilized on the social networking site Facebook to organize an international, woman-to-woman milk sharing network. Human milk is for human babies, and formula-feeding is associated with risks to both the mother and infant. Women today are aware of this fact and are taking their life-sustaining power back into their own hands --they are now converging on Facebook to freely share their breastmilk with one another.

Montreal, Canada, November 7, 2010 - The announcement last month from internet health guru, Dr. Joseph Mercola, of his plans to launch his own brand of powdered infant formula onto the US market, has spawned the Eats On Feets GLOBAL breastmilk sharing network. In retaliation against yet another needless and harmful artificial breastmilk substitute to hit the market, mothers on Facebook from around the world have come together to take a stand for infant health. They have now established the world's largest human milk sharing network, an initiative spearheaded by Canadian lactating mother and passionate breastfeeding activist, Emma Kwasnica.

The "Eats On Feets" name is the brainchild of Phoenix, AZ midwife, Shell Walker. A mother to young children in the '90s, Walker and her friends had this thought: "Hey, why don't we just become wet-nurses? Instead of 'Meals on Wheels', we can call our business 'Eats On Feets'." Walker took this idea and made it a reality in July, 2010, when she created a Facebook profile page under the same name, and began a free, community-based breastmilk sharing network for mothers in Phoenix. She has since been successful at matching up local women who have an excess, or are in need of, human breastmilk.

Meanwhile, Kwasnica has also been using her personal profile page and her large network of international birth and breastfeeding activists on Facebook, in order to match up human milk donors and recipients around the world. One such story involves a fellow Canadian friend, living in Bandung, Indonesia; the school teacher and single father to a newborn son wondered if he could source human milk for his baby instead of feeding his son a powdered breastmilk substitute. Aware of his situation, Kwasnica put the call out to her vast network via a simple status update on Facebook, and a breastfeeding peer counselor in a neighbouring city in Indonesia responded. A string of lactating women on the ground was assembled to provide human milk locally for the infant boy. Now three months old, this baby has never tasted anything other than human milk.

The announcement of Dr. Mercola's plans to market formula was the final catalyst that spurred Emma Kwasnica on to convene with Shell Walker and launch Eats On Feets GLOBAL. Regarding the inception of this initiative, she states: "Shell Walker is a friend and the midwife in Phoenix, AZ who came up with the name 'Eats On Feets'. She graciously allowed me to use her catchy name in order to launch the global initiative: a woman-to-woman, grassroots milk sharing network here on Facebook. As for Dr. Mercola, he should be injecting his burgeoning wealth into breastfeeding support, not trying to make more money off a product that is harmful to infants and their lifelong health."

With the help of nearly 200 women online from the global mothering Facebook community, the initiative has taken off. Donor and recipient milk matches are being made right now all over the world on the pages of Facebook. There are now 87 Eats On Feets chapter pages spanning 18 countries (a quick Facebook search for "Eats On Feets" yields dozens of results). This movement is proof that Facebook can, indeed, be used for the good of humanity. By encouraging the biologically normal way of feeding babies, and reviving an age-old practice of human milk sharing, it is clear that social networking has the power to revolutionize infant health.



ABOUT Eats On Feets GLOBAL - The Eats On Feets GLOBAL network chapter pages on Facebook provide an online space to facilitate woman-to-woman milk sharing. We assert that women are capable of making informed choices and of sharing human milk with one another in a safe and ethical manner. Eats On Feets GLOBAL does NOT support the selling or corporatism of human breastmilk.

For a current list of all of the Eats On Feets chapter locations in operation around the globe, or to find your local Eats On Feets Facebook chapter page, please see this document at the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/EatsOnFeetsGLOBAL

To listen to the radio show podcast (from October 30) where Emma Kwasnica discusses the events that lead to the launch of Eats On Feets GLOBAL, and how the ethics of Dr. Mercola were the catalyst for this initiative, visit: http://kopn.org/archive and click on "Momma Rap".

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Update: 3/24/2011

Eats on Feets Philippines is now Human Milk for Human Babies - The Philippines. Check out the Facebook page for milk offers/requests. To read why there was a name change, click this LINK.

The cup of life

Photo by Rudy Liwanag, Manila Bulletin

I was quite excited to read the feature about the Philippine General Hospital's Milk Bank in Friday's Manila Bulletin. As I shared in my previous post, I was trying to get my milk pasteurized but they could't run the pasteurization machine because of lack of milk donations. Also, this article ran contrary to the practice at the other hospital used bottles for their premature babies. At the UP-PGH, premature babies were cupfed with their own mother's milk or pasteurized donor's milk.

UP-PGH Milk Bank is where I regularly donate milk in the past year. As emphasized by Dr. Jessa Sareno, a neonatologist fellow, their credo is as follows:

Human milk has no substitute. Breast milk also has immunoprotective properties that fight against life-threatening infections like sepsis, pneumonia, diarrhea, and enterocolitis. It likewise has components, which help the newborn’s intestinal tract to mature, allowing for easy digestion, better absorption, faster growth, and better health. Plus, it also has nutrients in a combination that no artificial product can duplicate.

This article is close to my heart because of my niece Anya Carissa. UP-PGH is a public hospital but I was amazed to read that their lactation unit took time out to teach mothers how to hand express milk and had the patience to cup-feed the babies. As opposed to my niece's hospital - where the doctor just told her breastfeed without details on how to breastfeed a premature baby or how to keep up her supply. My sister has been having problems with supply and Anya is still not up to her birth weight -- so now, Dr. Q is suggesting that my sister purchase Spirulina to mix to her breastmilk!

When my sister first breastfed her, Anya was removed from the NICU and taken to the breastfeeding room. Since only the mother and baby could stay in the breastfeeding room, I asked my sister if a nurse stayed with her to show her how to properly position and latch Anya. She said that the nurse only stayed for a short while and she was left to her own devices. I wish this hospital -- with all its expensive equipment, gear, marketing ploys - would set aside some of its budget to purchase a pasteurization machine and hire an honest-to-goodness lactation consultant. This hospital even has its own cord banking unit -- but no breastfeeding support.

Anyway, the article suggests some ways you can be a milk angel to the UP-PGH Milk Bank - by becoming a financial or milk donor, or by becoming a volunteer to cup-feed babies. Dr. Jessa even suggests celebrating your birthday in a unique way by volunteering to cup feed the babies. I'm guessing that the PGH neonatal unit is a much more loving setting and a far cry from Anya's cold, sterile own NICU.

To know more how you can help, contact the Lactation Unit and Human Milk Bank, 4th Floor, LCB, Philippine General Hospital, 5218450 local 3418/3409.

Preemies and Breastfeeding

anya carissa just after birth

Anya Carissa is getting bigger and improving! They've removed all her tubes today, except for her IV which will be removed after her last dose of antibiotics at about 11pm tonight. She has been in the NICU for 1 week and 3 days. For the first time today, her parents were able to hold her, albeit briefly. Having a preemie niece made me think about several questions or issues on breastfeeding, hospital policies some of which I was able to clear up with Dr. Z.

1. No colostrum

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Anya's doctor did not want to give her colostrum for fear that she might choke. Instead, she was given glucose water via IV and for her first 2 feedings. After that, she was given my sister's breastmilk.

2. Use of bottles at the NICU

Anya started using a feeding tube. The tube was eventually replaced by a bottle. I asked why a bottle was used instead of a cup. The hospital prided itself as being breastfeeding friendly and in their nursery, I was under the impression that they used cups to feed the babies. I clarified this with Dr. Z who shared that for premature babies, there are experts who prefer bottlefeeding because of the risk of choking/aspiration and more effort required and calorie usage from the baby. This is why although full-term babies are cup-fed, NICU babies at this hospital are bottle-fed. Little Anya is now up to 30ml per feeding, although she feeds slowly. I think that slow feeding is quite normal -- Naima used to take 1-1.5hours to finish 2oz of milk.

3. Direct Breastfeeding

There are certain guidelines for breastfeeding preterm babies which are quite different. As Dr. Z emphasized, feeding is a very big issue in the NICU, and is a skill that a baby needs to be competent at before he or she goes home. La Leche League has a comprehensive resource page on feeding premature babies. You can also check this page from About.com for a quick overview. I wish I had read the About.com article earlier. One of the tips she had was: "Even if your baby is being fed intravenously, you can swab the colostrum inside her cheeks." -- this would've certainly been helpful in our case since my sister could just produce drops of colostrum then.

4. Kangaroo care
It was only today or more than 1 week after she was born that Anya was held by her parents. Since she was born, she was placed inside the incubator, with her parents just being allowed to hold her briefly through the holes of the incubator with gloves. Just recently, ABC News ran a story about how premature babies get lift from kangaroo care that helps give moms (and dads) purpose. It was actually identified as one of the greatest gifts NICU staff can give the preemies' parents. Then again, the article goes on to discuss about how some doctors draw the line when the baby's on a breathing tube -- and don't allow kangaroo care.
Baby Anya had been either on canula (oxygen tube) or ventilator since she was born. It was just last night when her breathing tubes were removed. Maybe this was why kangaroo care was only practiced by Anya and her parents today.

5. Milk Donations
In the course of my breastfeeding career with Naima, I have donated gallons of milk to different babies - singletons, twins, triplets, preemies, full-terms. Except for the milk I donated to the PCMC and PGH milk banks, I'm pretty sure that my milk was not pasteurized before being fed to the babies. Dr. Z again reminded me that the safest alternative to mother's milk is pasteurized donor milk OR directed donor milk from a screened donor.
I tried checking with UP-PGH on how to get my milk pasteurized for Anya but was unsuccessful. The PGH milk bank has a huge pasteurizer which runs only when they have collected 71 8oz. Dr. Edwards bottles. This is equivalent to about 568 ounces and they were nowhere near that! (side note: if you have extra milk, now would be a good time to donate -- PGH continuously accepts donated breastmilk). Even if I donate all my old stocks of milk in my freezer, we still wouldn't be able to run the pasteurization machine.
I still collected milk once daily and whatever milk I collected was stored in the NICU freezer for Anya in case my sister couldn't express enough. I felt that my milk also served to boost up my sister's confidence and prevent her from stressing too much about her milk production. Since she was relaxed when pumping, she was able to make enough for Anya's demand and so far, it was only once that they had to give Anya my breastmilk.

Once her IV tubes are removed, she will be transferred to a transition room where my sister will be allowed to try direct breastfeeding. Hopefully, Anya's improvement will be continuous and we will be allowed to bring her home by the end of this week.