Mariel Meléndez had just given birth to her first child when a health complication threatened her desire to breastfeed him. She was diagnosed with postpartum cardiomyopathy and was hospitalized for a few days while her little Arturo was sent home.
The story of Meléndez herself, who is described as a “formula girl” who was given substitutes because her mother was also hospitalized after giving birth, ran the risk of repeating itself if it were not for Arturo rejecting the formula, triggering the search for milk donors to be able to feed it.
The first friendly hand found her in the same family circle. A cousin of Meléndez, also just given birth, shared her milk.
Meanwhile, through Prolactar RD, a non-profit organization that promotes breastfeeding, other women found out about her case and came to her aid. One of them “went the extra mile” and visited the house of Meléndez, who was still in the hospital, to check the baby and, with the mother’s consent, give her the breast so that she would not get used to sucking the nipple of the bottle.
“It was very satisfying to see all that help from people I did not know,” says Meléndez four years after that experience.
Although waiting for her first child, she felt “extremely positive” and was preparing to breastfeed, Meléndez had not contemplated becoming a milk donor. It was gratitude that moved her to action and to do for other families what they did for her before.
Arturo’s mom, now four years old, and Amalia, one, estimates that she has given more than 4,000 ounces of milk to an estimated 40 families directly.
Dr. Josefina Coen from the Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia Maternity Hospital has donated almost a dozen times to the Human Milk Bank, the first of them in 2017 in response to an annual conference called by Prolactar RD.
Most of the cases in which you have donated directly have been from deceased mothers. On other occasions, it has helped feed adopted babies who reject formula or babies with health problems.
In the process, notes @extractoresdelecherd’s lactation consultant, a connection is created with the baby and the family. “You see two satisfactions: you see the baby (grow up healthy) and you see the spiritual satisfaction of the parents.”
He clarifies, however, that direct donation does not consist of just giving the milk just like that. She interviews the family and makes sure there is a real need. In addition, you must ensure that the recipient of the milk knows how to handle it.
To the Human Milk Bank Dr. Josefina Coen, who allocates the food she receives to the babies at the hospital, Meléndez donates fresh milk when it is “overdrawn”. And it is not that he has an overproduction, but that he adheres to a strict extraction schedule.
Why donate human milk? “Because you give life,” Meléndez responds. “You share what Daddy God gave you. The satisfaction of being able to help the other without you sometimes knowing who. You hear that a mother is desperate because her baby cannot do one thing or another and you give her the solution in such an easy way, just you milking yourself, something that you already have, fills your heart ”.
“I am saving lives”
Kayra Ulloa was moved to tears when she made her first donation to the Human Milk Bank Dr. Josefina Coen from the Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia Maternity Hospital. Still today, two months later, his eyes get wet when he remembers that day.
“I feel more than grateful, I feel happy because I am saving lives,” says the young mother.
In the beginning, Ulloa began to donate to reduce the amount of food accumulated in the personal milk bank that she created after the birth of her little Victor Gael, who has just turned six months old.
“My fridge was completely milk,” he says.
On the recommendation of her breastfeeding mentor, Shira Abreu, from Prolactar RD, began bringing the newest milk (milk banks do not receive it if it is more than 13 days old) until she was left at home with a more manageable amount of food .
The process to donate in the only human milk bank in the country, he says from experience, “is super simple”: the milk must be less than 13 days old; once at the milk bank, they register you as a donor and give you a number or code that you will use for future donations; then they go on to carry out some analytics and proceed to the delivery and registration of the milk that you have brought.
“If the mother has not been milked yet and wants to donate the milk from her breasts, the maternity milk bank has an area for the extraction of food,” he adds.
What began with a practical purpose has become for Ulloa a commitment to the health and well-being of children. Not only has it been programmed to make periodic deliveries to the La Altagracia maternity milk bank, setting aside part of the milk that is extracted for these purposes; He also shares with mothers who need it and who reach him directly.
One of the cases you saw recently, that of a teenage mother feeding her newborn with sugar water and linden tea, perfectly illustrates the need for the issue and the noble work carried out by women who , like Ulloa, they donate their milk.
“If I can do it, if I can feed my baby and I can donate so that others can be saved, then we are going to do it,” says Ulloa, who, thanks to the guidance she received before giving birth, knows the many benefits of milk maternal.
And the intention that you have to breastfeed your child as long as possible is the same that you have to offer other little ones the possibility of enjoying these benefits.
“Until we are ready for weaning,” he assures, “there I will be giving breast milk and also donating it.”
How to contribute
The pandemic reduced milk donations in the country, report from the Human Milk Bank Dr. Josefina Coen.
To contribute, you can take your frozen milk with less than 15 days of collection, duly sealed in glass containers with a plastic lid or in special bags for these purposes.
You can also express your milk in the same bank. At the institution, they register you as a donor and carry out viral analyzes.
And you can’t just bring milk: glass jars with wide mouths and glass lids to store the liquid are welcome.
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