News Link

Here is the link from my news interview about donating to the milk bank. 

I just watched it again and it still brings tears to my eyes. The name of the story is called Moms Keep Giving Through Breast Milk Bank; Minnesota moms lost babies, but help feed others.  I have added the story courtesy of Fox 9 News below. 

MINNEAPOLIS - There's a lot of research out there about the importance of breast milk for a baby's early development. In fact, experts say a mother's milk can greatly decrease the risk for illness and other conditions like childhood diabetes.

Studies show breast milk is even more important for premature babies, and that's why two Minnesota moms overcame their own sadness to give a great gift.

Melissa Johnston and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world on July 17th, 2007. Audrey was precious, but the Johnston's little angel had Trisomy 18 --a rare condition that affects abut one out of every 3,000 births.

"Her life expectancy was a week," Johnston said. "And to have someone tell you that about your child. I can't explain it."

Little Audrey couldn't nurse. Her body was too weak. Still, Melissa Johnston kept pumping and saving her breast milk, hopeful her baby girl could one day tolerate it.

Audrey passed away in her mother's arms just 43 days after she was born.

"After Audrey passed away it was such a roller coaster," Johnston said.

Johnston had a freezer full of milk, and wanted to do something to honor Audrey. The nurses in NICU had told her about a milk bank. It's a first of its kind hospital-based human milk bank at Fairview-Riverside in Minneapolis that opened in 2004.

"It started as a response to a perceived need in the community," said Lora Harding Dundek, manager of Birth and Family Education and Support Services at The Birthplace. "The closest milk bank outside of this area is Iowa City and the next closest is Denver."

To make it easy for the moms, all they have to do, once they've passed the screening process, is bring their milk back here to the hospital. Someone comes down from the milk bank and the moms don't even have to get out of their car.

The milk is packed on dry ice and sent overnight through FedEx to a company in California that processes it and ships it to premature and sick infants across the country.

The milk goes to babies like Ella Jo Krumwiede, born 16 weeks premature and weighing only about a pound. On June 16, 2009, 83 days after she was born, Ella died.

"She had a spirit kind of like mine, but a temper kind of like her dad, I think," her mother, Taryn Krumwiede, said.

Taryn continued to pump even though her little girl couldn't take the milk. When Ella died, Taryn also wanted to keep her baby's memory alive.

 "I knew I couldn't throw it away, I knew I couldn't just let it go," she said. "I knew it was something that would help my baby and I knew it would help other babies."

Hundreds of babies are given a chance at survival all because these moms gave a great gift in a tiny little bottle.

 "It made me fell like I was doing something for other babies and it was a gift to Audrey," Johnston said.

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/