Human Milk Banking - Love You Can Bank On

By Corky Harvey, Co-Founder of the Pump Station & Nurtury and MS, RN, IBCLC

Hurry to a magazine stand and buy the March issue of The Oprah Magazine. In it there is a fabulous article about human milk banking. The article tells the sad and touching story of a mother who gave birth to triplets at 22 weeks gestation. Two of the babies did not survive even one day, but one tiny girl lived almost 7 months—never able to come home from the NICU. This incredible mother pumped her milk the whole time and after the death of her sweet baby, she donated 7,360 ounces of her milk to a milk bank in Raleigh, North Carolina. The story includes lots of information about the importance of donor milk and about the babies who eventually were the recipients of this mother’s gift of life.

Did you know?

• Every dollar spent on donor milk for premature babies can yield $11 to $37 in cost savings, because these infants will require less medical treatment—and yet many insurance companies won’t pay for it
  
• 1.2 million ounces of human milk were distributed in 2008.
  
• It would take 8.9 million ounces to provide enough human milk for all of the VLBW (very low birth weight) babies born every year in the US each year.
  

When you’ve read the article you will want information about how you or a friend might donate your “overstock” of milk to help another baby. We know quite a few Pump Station moms have taken the time to give this precious gift.

For more information:

Go to the Website of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (hmbana.org) and find out what you can do and where you can do it. There isn’t a milk bank in the LA area, however the milk bank in San Jose and the milk depot in San Diego would gladly receive your milk.

Hey UCLA or Cedars—how about it?

You may also want to find out how to encourage your insurance company to pay for donor milk.

Salma Hayek Breast Feeding Flap

Fox News interviews Tania Capata at The Pump Station & Nurtury about her opinions on Salma Hayek breastfeeding a little boy in Africa.

Special Valentine’s Day Event Feb. 13th

Join us for a Special Valentine’s Day Event - Get Fit and Save 10-20%* on your Entire Purchase!

Friday, February 13th, 1:00pm at the Santa Monica Pump Station & Nurtury

Stroller Strides is a stroller fitness class where mom can workout with her baby. It's a great way to get in shape, be with your baby and meet other moms! The classes consist of a Power Walk combined with body sculpting exercises using exercise tubing, the stroller and the environment. The classes are designed to accommodate all levels of exerciser.

Please join Stroller Strides at The Pump Station & Nurtury on Wilshire Blvd and bring your friends! We will offer a modified Stroller Strides class beginning at 1:00pm. Following your workout, we will have refreshments as well as an hour to shop at a 10 -20%* discount.

**Sign up early and receive a Valentines Gift at the event!

For more information or to sign up for this special event, please call a sales associate at the Pump Station or email/call Tracy Brown at tracy@strollerstrides.net / 800-795-6708

*In Store Only - 20% off entire store except 10% off Medela and Stokke

Pump Station & Nurtury
2415 Wilshire Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90403

310-998-1981

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For our mother’s sake:

by Jessica Sacher RN MN IBCLC

Twenty years. Twenty years ago today I said good-bye to my mother for the last time. I was at her bedside when she breathed her last breath that ended three years of a lost battle with cancer. It was yesterday, it was today, and yet twenty years have somehow come and gone. A day does not pass that I don’t think of her. She lived to see two of our three children. One year after losing my mother, we were blessed with our third child.

I have always felt that this daughter was my mother’s last gift to me, her gift of love and hope from heaven. True to form, our daughter, Eyelle, has been a joy to raise and love. Now a college freshman far from home she has become a delightful young woman who, like all of our children, would have made my their grandmother proud.

For those of you who are still lucky enough to have your mother, relish the time with her. Don’t wish that she would go away and stop nagging you. Overlook her faults, criticisms, and human frailties. So what if she doesn’t fold the towels the way you do, or load the dishwasher the way you do? So what if you can’t find where she put the lasagna pan after she made you dinner.

Give her the gift of spending time with you and her grandchild. Let her spoil this baby in the best sense of the word. Let her hold this baby while you take an extra 10 minutes in the tub for yourself. It doesn’t matter if she drives you nuts, or says the wrong things at the wrong time.

Or, if you are lucky, as I was, and your mother is your best friend, tell her and treasure her for today and for this moment, because who really knows what tomorrow will bring.

In memory of my mother, Etty Bernstein