This week’s National Breastfeeding Month theme is: Breastfeeding saves lives in an emergency. There are many questions regarding child feeding during natural emergencies, such as a hurricane or the current COVID-19 pandemic. Is it safe to breastfeed? What happens when moms are separated from their children? Can changes in a breastfeeding mother’s diet during a natural emergency affect the nutritional content of their breast milk? To help us answer some of these questions, this week, we spoke with Angeliz Rivera - a registered nurse and breastfeeding mother of a 10-month-old baby. She cares for patients in the prenatal clinic at the University District Hospital (UDH) in Puerto Rico’s Medical Center. Angeliz shared her experience working as a nurse when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, leading the island into a desperate humanitarian crisis. She also shared useful tips on how to raise awareness about the importance of breast milk in daily life. C heck out our in
Baby Athena was born with Congenital Short Gut Syndrome, a rare intestinal disorder. Initially fed hypoallergenic formulas in the hospital, she had a strong adverse reaction and severe bleeding. Only when Athena was switched to donor human milk feedings did the bleeding stop and she started to gain weight. Athena stayed on donor milk for 4 months. Now she is one year old, and her mom decided to share their story as a recipient family to all donor moms and the milk bank community as thanks for all their support. Athena came barreling into this world like a recking ball to our otherwise calm lives. Our warrior was born 37 weeks gestation after a relatively uncomplicated pregnancy. She spent 12 hours in the NICU due to “difficulty to transition” which is fancy medical talk for she needs a little help breathing. Within 8 hours she was in the normal L&D room with me and attempting to nurse. She was sleepier than my first daughter so I started pumping immediately to get my supply up