They are drops that are worth gold. The 425 liters of breast milk donated to Huelva, since 2019, have allowed a total of 157 Huelva newborns have been able to get ahead.
Breast milk is “the best gift” for babies. This is how he manifests it to this newspaper Maria Fernandez, the first recipient mother in the province of Huelva. Your son Jose Manuel He was born premature in 2018, at 25 weeks of gestation, and “his growth and development advanced a lot in a very short time thanks to the solidarity gesture of other donor mothers”, he thanks, while recalling that “there were two months in which he received donated milk, given that I, due to my conditions at that time, could not breastfeed her”.
Such was the “impact” generated by this position so altruisticwho also wanted to become a donor mother after giving birth, although, as she points out, “I was not able to fulfill this wish as I did not have properly established breastfeeding”, one of the necessary requirements to be a donor.
Macarena Gomez yes, she could be a donor mother, “a very pleasant feeling, because if I have an excessive production of milk, the best thing is to give it to a baby so that it can get ahead,” she maintains. What she did not know is that, some time later, she would also be a recipient mother, while her triplets were born prematurely in December 2021. “For four or five days the milk from other donor mothers helped my little girls in their first days of life,” she says.
One of the babies from Huelva who has recently benefited from the milk bank is María, the daughter of Isabel Gutierrez. She was born on March 24, at 25 weeks, and “in addition to medical treatments and respiratory support, she needed breast milk, the best remedy for a fragile immune system,” says Isabel. Her milk production “was not enough”, so María has received donated human milk for two months, a gesture that her parents “are very grateful for the effort involved in expressing milk and, above all, for newborns who do not you know”.
Any type of duda dissipates in Isabel’s mind when asked if she wanted to be a donor mother, given that “after experiencing such a beautiful gift, I am determined to donate if I manage to have enough production”. “Until you experience this, you don’t know about this altruistic gesture,” summarizes Isabel.
Donated human milk is an ideal formula for hospitalized infants who lack their mother’s milk, especially those who are premature or have certain illnesses. The same, as stated from the Satellite Center for Donation and Reception of Breast Milk of the Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital“it is better tolerated, protects babies against serious intestinal problems and reduces the risk of infection in hospitalized infants”.
The pediatrician at the hospital, Beatriz Mendozastates that a baby is premature when it is born before week 37, although those who benefit from the donation are those born before 32 weeks or weighing less than three pounds. The same, given the immaturity of their organism, “are more exposed to suffering from harmful pathologies”, both intestinal and respiratory. So much so, “that your intestine is only prepared for breastfeeding and not for artificial formulas, which generate an abnormal immune response“, with the consequent triggering of “more bacteria and an injury to the mucosa of the intestine”. It is known as necrotizing enterocolitis and has a mortality rate, according to the WHO, between 20 and 40%.
For the specialist, human milk is “fundamental”, because in addition to preventing the aforementioned injury, “significantly reduces future asthma, weight or cognitive problems”. In turn, donation is also beneficial for women, since “it reduces the probability of suffering from breast or ovarian cancer, postpartum depression or some pathologies such as diabetes.” To this is added “economic savings and protection for the environment by using a totally natural formula,” she concludes.
The Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital is accredited as a satellite for the donation and reception of breast milk from the Hospital’s Breast Milk Bank. Virgin of the Rocío of Seville. Since 2019, 98 Huelva mothers have donated, there are currently seven active. The volume of milk donated has been 475 litres, while that of milk received from Seville since 2018 has risen to 425 litres.
The high-quality human milk comes from donor mothers previously selected by the satellite centers. The person in charge at the Juan Ramón Jiménez hospital, Sonia Pastor, explains that any woman can be a donor “with correctly established breastfeeding, who is healthy, lead a healthy lifestyle and want to donate voluntarily and altruistically“. They can also be those whose children are admitted to the Neonatology units and who “have more milk than their children need”, he underlines, adding that, “in any case, at least three weeks must have passed since childbirth”.
Donor mothers are given a personal interview to “know their health status and life habits,” continues Pastor, who adds that “they are also serological study to rule out potentially communicable diseases through milk”.
To do this, you must contact the professionals of the Satellite Center for Donation and Reception of Breast Milk, located in the Neonatology Unit, by telephone 671 59 40 69, and make an appointment for a personal interview. The women selected as donors will receive information on the donation process, how to express the milk and how to store it until it is delivered, providing them with the necessary material. The expressed milk will be frozen immediately and stored at home for up to 15 days. Later, it will be the mothers who take the milk to the Satellite Center, open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The milk is delivered to the Juan Ramón Jiménez University Hospital, from where shipments are made to Seville, through the Huelva Transfusion, Tissues and Cells Center. Upon arrival, the milk goes through a pasteurization process and subsequent analysis to confirm its suitability. From this hospital, pasteurized milk is sent to the satellite centers when they need it for the babies, under medical prescriptionguaranteeing the traceability of the procedure at all times.
Regarding the milk reserves, the person in charge of the satellite center, Sonia Pastor, makes a appeal for the current “shortage” scenario in milk banks. The reserves are located “at levels lower than those recommended by the World Health Organization”, hence “we ask mothers who want to be donors to be encouraged to do so”. The dissemination of this solidarity action takes place through posters in the hospital center itself, word of mouth, the recruitment of mothers in the maternal-infant area and the support groups for breastfeeding, “who are of great help Pastor ends.
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