Mothers' Milk Bank Austin

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 o...

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...

Breastfeeding, Breast milk, and COVID-19  Hi mamas! My name is Kara Michael and I’m an occupational therapist and an IBCLC (international board certified lactation consultant). I’m the owner of Best Fed Beginnings , a breastfeeding clinic in Beaumont, TX. We’ve also housed a Mother’s Milk Bank at Austin depot drop off in our office since February 2019. I’m the proud mom to my 5 year old daughter, Natalie and my 3 month old son, Theodore (Teddy).  We, as mothers with babies, are facing unprecedented times with the COVID-19 pandemic. We are all trying to do what we think is best for not only ourselves as individuals and families, but for our community as a whole with social distancing and stores closing. It is easy to feel helpless during these times and question how you can both keep your family safe and contribute to the common good and help others in this time of crisis.  Well mamas, I can promise you that breastfeeding, and continuing to breastf...

An Urgent Notice from the Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin Dear Friend of the Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin, Like so many other organizations, businesses, and individuals, the Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin continues monitoring the rapidly escalating US experience of SARS-CoV-2, and the respiratory illness it causes, COVID-19. We are comforted by the US Food and Drug Administration’s statements on the safety of food and food packaging and pleased to note that the CDC continues supporting breastfeeding, even in cases of exposure or diagnosis. Milk banks are an essential service, so we continue working through the pandemic, and understand that the highest priority action at this point is to increase donor screening and pasteurization activities to ensure that our fragile babies continue to access life-saving milk. With the knowledge that the peak of this pandemic is still weeks or months away, it is paramount to procure and process milk as rapidly as possible...

Gratitude Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin recently completed a record-breaking year, with more milk donors providing more milk for more babies in more hospitals and outpatient homes than ever before. Looking back, I’m overwhelmed by the number of individuals, charitable foundations, and businesses who support our work. We thank all of them and hope they inspire others to help babies in need. Many of you know we moved into a larger, state-of-the-art facility in 2017. Since we won’t need all the space in the short run, we took on an excellent tenant last year, Acton Imprimis, a small, private school. We’re grateful to Kevin Jones of Structura, Inc. for donating his time to supervise the tenant fit-out; Structura is the general contractor that did an outstanding job for us in 2017. We thank also Christy Mosely of Native Sun Landscape Design, who donated her time and vision to create a beautiful landscape of grasses and flowers surrounding the milk bank, attracting butterflies a...

This week we celebrated World Breast Pumping Day.  A day where we all the breastfeeding community acknowledge the love, dedication, and sacrifices that mothers made during their breastfeeding journey. The theme of World Breast Pumping Day 2020 is “Every Drop Counts.” Since breastfeeding could be a different experience for every mother and baby, some are able to breastfeed beautifully from the start, while others need more support. At Mother’s Milk Bank Austin , we support all parents, and we believe that all experiences are valid and meaningful. Today we are excited to share Julia’s milk pumping story. Julia is one of our board directors. She is a healthcare technology professional who loves travel and photography and a mother who, after going through a challenging breast pumping journey, became a human milk donor. — When you’re expecting a baby, you do what you can to prepare for your child’s arrival. I did as much as I could to be ready for my baby, ...