Question: How do you go about making yourself feel better when you're feeling a little bit helpless (with a side dish of self pity)?
Answer: Do something for someone less fortunate!
On Monday I made my way to King Edward Memorial Hospital, home to the largest Special Care Nursery for pre-term and seriously ill babies in the Southern Hemisphere. Some of the babies I got to see there (through glass - only the immediate family are allowed in for infection control purposes) were born weighing under one kilo and as early as 26 weeks gestation. I had a textbook pregnancy and Tricky was a week overdue so what was I doing there? I was being interviewed to become a donor at Australia's longest running milk bank!
The Perron Rotary Express Milk Bank or PREM Bank (don't you just love acronyms that match!) provides human breastmilk to pre-term infants whose mothers, for whatever reason (sometimes the stress of having a sick baby), cannot produce enough milk themselves. Their immature digestive systems can handle breastmilk much better than formula and they are ten times more likely to develop severe gastrointestinal infections if fed formula instead of human milk. Plus the antibodies found in breastmilk (most of which remain after the milk is pasteurized for safety) really help the little ones immune systems.
The milk donors are screened in an interview which is why I was there. I had to fill out a few forms and have blood tests to ensure I didn't have any communicable diseases and was then given a super duper pump, sterilizing equipment and a dozen sterile bottles to fill with my milk. Each morning just before Tricky's first feed I wash my hands, then sterilize my hands, sterilize the equipment, sterilize my hands again (there is a LOT of sterilizing, can you tell?) then set myself up with Tricky on one side and the machine on the other. I am now a cow who is milked once a day for the benefit of some teeny tiny bubbas and it makes me feel fantastic!
If you have a new baby and would like to share the boobie juice love with some babies in need, contact the PREM Bank - I promise you will feel fab for doing it!
The Perron Rotary Express Milk Bank or PREM Bank (don't you just love acronyms that match!) provides human breastmilk to pre-term infants whose mothers, for whatever reason (sometimes the stress of having a sick baby), cannot produce enough milk themselves. Their immature digestive systems can handle breastmilk much better than formula and they are ten times more likely to develop severe gastrointestinal infections if fed formula instead of human milk. Plus the antibodies found in breastmilk (most of which remain after the milk is pasteurized for safety) really help the little ones immune systems.
The milk donors are screened in an interview which is why I was there. I had to fill out a few forms and have blood tests to ensure I didn't have any communicable diseases and was then given a super duper pump, sterilizing equipment and a dozen sterile bottles to fill with my milk. Each morning just before Tricky's first feed I wash my hands, then sterilize my hands, sterilize the equipment, sterilize my hands again (there is a LOT of sterilizing, can you tell?) then set myself up with Tricky on one side and the machine on the other. I am now a cow who is milked once a day for the benefit of some teeny tiny bubbas and it makes me feel fantastic!
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If you have a new baby and would like to share the boobie juice love with some babies in need, contact the PREM Bank - I promise you will feel fab for doing it!
