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March for Babies!

Oh, what fun we had last Saturday at the March for Babies walk, benefiting the March of Dimes! After weeks of putting our team together and fundraising and organizing our tent, the day was finally here!
As a team the Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin raised $1,625...not bad for our first go at this! And not only did our staff walk, but we had donors and recipients join us as well, which was a huge bonus. It was especially rewarding to us to have the Roy Family participate in the walk. Baby Ike is no longer a baby, but a healthy talking 2 1/2 year-old with long curls, and we all celebrate his progress from a donor milk-fed infant with a tracheostomy.
As an organization we sponsored a Lactation & Changing Station for the walk. Situated between the Family Team tent and the bouncy house, we were in a perfect spot for people to discover this new addition to the walk. Being our first time out there providing this service we weren't sure what kind of response we would get, but it turned out to be fantastic. Everyone was incredibly appreciative and we even had the chance to meet quite a few NICU graduates that had received milk from the milk bank.
Let me tell you more about our set up--we wanted to provide a quiet and comfortable place (out of the sun) for moms to come and nurse or change their babies. The awesome Austin baby boutique, baby coco, agreed to loan us some fabulous gliders for the day, and they also set up a beautiful "changing station". At some points during the morning, there was actually a line out the tent door of people waiting to come in, (noted for next year to have additional changing stations!) and the gliders were almost always full!
Not only did we provide a breastfeeding friendly service to the participants, but it also allowed us to share more about MMBA and the benefits of breastfeeding and donor human milk. Success all around! A poignant moment of the day came when a mother of a four-month-old came in and sat down to use one of the gliders to feed her baby. Through tears she told us that her miracle baby had been born at just over 1 pound and had received milk from us, and she was certain "that without the milk he received from the milk bank he would not have survived." Another mother came by just to say thank you for having this tent and that she wished we had been there two years ago when she was nursing. And others came by to say thanks for donor milk that supported their now healthy and beautiful children.

As the walk began, our fabulous volunteers from the National Charity League, along with a few of our milk donors, stayed to man the tent while we walked! It was incredibly powerful to be walking down the middle of Congress Avenue with thousands of other people who are passionate about the health of babies.

Thank you to the March of Dimes for being open to our partnership and letting us to support the breastfeeding community in this way. Thank you to our wonderful staff and volunteers who made sure it ran smoothly. Thank you to baby coco for being our in-kind sponsor and going above and beyond our expectations. Thank you to all of those who shared their stories--your happiness keeps up going. And, finally, thank you to all those who believe in and support what we do! We hope you will all come out and walk with us next year!

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