Mothers' Milk Bank Austin

As a follow up to yesterday's blog post, we wanted to share the press release for the "Latch On America Tour" community event that will take place at Zilker Park on Thursday morning! FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Austin contact: Anne Lasseigne Tiedt, APR - Momentum Public Relations for Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin anne@momentum-pr.com or 512-784-3805 Latch On America contact: brettan@milkforthought.com or 619-318-3536 Austin selected as one of 30 cities for “Latch On America,” national grassroots campaign and documentary film to support moms, promote breastfeeding and infant health Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin and local hosts invite moms-to-be and breastfeeding community to meet Latch On America and its ‘Big Pink Bus for Breastfeeding’ at Zilker Park on August 18, 10 a.m. AUSTIN, TEXAS – August 15, 2011 – Breastfeeding is beautiful but it isn’t always easy. On Thursday, August 18 at 10 a.m. at Zilker Park’s Pecan Grove, local breastfeeding and infant heal...

On Thursday, August 18th the big pink Latch On America bus will be pulling into Austin and we plan to show them a good time! We will help host a community event on Thursday morning at Zilker Park from 10 a.m. to noon. Then we will host them at MMBA later in the afternoon for a tour of our lab and interviews with breastfeeding supporters from throughout the city. Most importantly, we want them to know that Austin supports breastfeeding and milk banking! We hope you will be able to join us on Thursday morning, or help spread the word—contact Kara@milkbank.org for more information or print out our flyer to share with everyone you know: Austin_Latch_On_America_Details.pdf

Every baby deserves human milk and every grieving parent deserves to heal. I’m paraphrasing words that Kim Updegrove, the Executive Director of the Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin spoke to me during a conversation we had in the first days that I met her. Those words still echo loudly when I think about the wonderful stories of selfless giving that so many grieving mothers have shared with me over the last few years. It is the story of my wife, my daughter, and the hundreds of donors I have met along my journey, which began the evening of August 8, 2008. The nurse blamed a faulty monitor and rushed out of the room, but the realization that something was seriously wrong came when the doctor stormed into the room frantically searching for a heartbeat inside of my wife’s tummy. But there wasn’t one to be found. Our daughter, Vivian, just days away from her arrival, had not survived an undetected infection. Our dream of having our third daughter was over in just a few moments. My wife’s milk ...

My son Tyler was born 4 weeks early. He was 4 pounds, 5 ounces - small for that stage of pregnancy due to what I was told was called Intra-Uterine Growth Restriction (IUGR). In order to keep his weight from dropping while waiting for my mine to come in, Tyler was given donor milk for the 1st 2 days of his life. I was so grateful that this was possible! I'm sure that largely because of this donation of nutrition, he was able to avoid needing NICU services & was also able to stay with me in the birthing center and to go home with me without an extended hospital stay. In an effort to stimulate my milk to come in ASAP, I began pumping immediately after delivery - every 3 hours as I would normally feed. Consequently, my milk came in in droves - I could have fed triplets, I'm pretty sure! I froze piles of extra milk. It took about 6 months for Tyler's consumption to catch up with my production. I was, therefore, able to donate almost 200 ounces of milk to the Mother's Mi...

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 turn...

The most important thing she’d learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one. –Jill Churchill Happy Mother's Day from all of us at the Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin!

David was born at 38 weeks gestation with intrauterine growth restriction. Weighing only 2.4 pounds and measuring slightly longer than 12 inches long, he was immediately taken to the level III neonatal intensive care unit at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. He would spend the next 80 days and nights working on gaining weight and stability. Diagnosed with Russel Silver Syndrome, David has a complicated diagnosis with symptoms including leg length discrepancy, hypospadias, poor/lack of appetite, gut dysmotility, reflux, and delay gastric emptying. David’s parents share their story: Since David came home, we are making continuous changes to our lives, this is 24 hours non-stop living. Also, medical follow ups are so frequent that we are asking the Texas Medical Center for a monthly parking pass. We are pleased that David is being taken care of by all his physicians because we are seeing improvement and development from each appointment to the next one. If we have to review our learni...