|
Message from the Executive Director
In March
2006, a group of dedicated and enthusiastic mothers, lactation consultants,
and nurses met for the first time in Boston to explore establishing a
mothers’ milk bank to serve babies, hospitals and families throughout
New England.
Two years later, we have well over one hundred people from
all over New England and many walks of life working to make the milk
bank a reality.
We
receive many emails each week from mothers wishing to donate or receive
milk, and physicians, nurses and lactation consultants wanting to know how to introduce banked milk to their hospitals for their tiny
vulnerable patients.
Here
we introduce our newsletter to keep all of you who support
the milk bank posted on our progress and developments. You can learn
more by visiting our website, or emailing us if you’d like to be added to our listserv or volunteer.
Welcome to our newsletter and our community. We look forward to sharing news of our progress and development.
Naomi Bar-Yam
Executive Director
Mothers' Milk Bank of New England
Shown above at right center, with
Karen Sussman-Karten (left), and
Raechel Hackney (right) at Ideablob award event
| |
|
Milk Bank wins $10,000 in national contest
|
 |
|
Thanks to the online votes of thousands of supporters, the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England won $10,000 in a contest sponsored by the website Ideablob.com.
Ideablob is a national competition allowing business and social entrepreneurs to submit ideas and compete for online votes. Our milk bank garnered thousands of votes from supporters around the country. The contest also generated significant media coverage for the milk bank, from online, print, and radio sources (see links to the right).
This funding will be used to support the purchase of equipment, the Milk Money Fund, and outreach materials. The announcement was made in a press conference at Brandeis University on February 13th.
|
|
Medical education programs scheduled
|
|
 |
An
important part of our mission is to educate the medical community about
the safety and appropriate uses of banked milk. We have two exciting
medical education programs scheduled:
On
April 22 -23 Dr. Susan Landers, neonatologist serving on the board of the
Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin, will give grand rounds at the Connecticut
Children’s Hospital in Hartford, CT and at St. Elizabeth’s Medical
Center in Brighton, MA. Her topic will be donor "Human milk banking: benefits and limitations." This program is free, and more information is available on our website.
On Friday September 12, MMBNE and Holy Family Hospital,
Methuen MA are sponsoring a one day conference on human milk banking.
CMEs, CEUs, and LCERPS will be available. Details to follow on our website.
|
|
Wear your support for the milk bank! |
|
|
Promote the Mothers' Milk Bank of New England by buying t-shirts, buttons, cards, bags, and other items with our logo at our new store:
www.cafepress.com/milkbankne
All proceeds benefit the Milk Bank. These items make great gifts!
|
|
Many ways to support the Milk Bank
|
|
|
Donate
In anticipation of Mothers' Day, we will be mailing and emailing our annual fundraising appeal letter. In addition to raising money directly, we encourage our supporters to use this letter as a template for soliciting donations from your family and friends. You can download the letter here:
Download MMBNE_fundraising_letter_template.doc (26.5K)
And you can also make an online donation through our website right now!
Use Goodsearch to donate to the Milk Bank for free!
GoodSearch
is a search engine which donates 50-percent of its revenue to the
charities and schools designated by its users. You use GoodSearch exactly as you would any other
search engine.
GoodSearch
also includes GoodShop, an online shopping mall in which each purchase made via the GoodShop mall
results in a donation.
Go to www.goodsearch.com and enter MMBNE as your cause of choice. Each time you come back to this page MMBNE should show up as the cause without you having to re-enter it.
Volunteer
- Write for this newsletter (email Tanya)
- Serve on our planning board
- Establish a milk collection depot
- Help with fundraising appeals
Email Naomi for more information about these opportunities. |
|
Milk Bank start-up
progressing
|
|
Starting
up a milk bank is complex and costly, and must be done carefully to ensure that our milk is safe.
The Mothers' Milk Bank of New England will be starting up with the help of the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Ohio.
In the next couple of months we will
be setting up a freezer and small office and begin receiving milk from
Ohio, which we will then dispense to New England hospitals and families. During
this time, milk donors will be referred to the Ohio milk bank.
As
medical providers begin using banked milk and we have funds for
equipment and staff, we will begin to screen donors and set up our milk
processing lab, hopefully within a year.
After investigating several local appliance stores, we are working with the owner of one company
which has offered to obtain freezers and a sanitizing dishwasher at wholesale cost with free delivery. We are gathering information from HMBANA guidelines and the experience of other milk banks to select equipment that meets the highest operating standards. |
|
|
|
Our Milk Bank
in the News
|
"Banking on Mothers' Milk," Valley Advocate (Springfield)
"Mothers' Milk Bank to Open,"
Seacoast Online
(Portsmouth)
"Newton Mother's Milk Business wins Award,"
Boston.com
"Unique local company looking for permanent home," (audio)
WBZ1030
"Ideablob.com awards alum $10,000 for project,"
Justice Online, Brandeis University
Milk Donation in the News:
"Is breastmilk a cancer cure?"
WFAA.com (Texas)
Mothers' Milk Bank
of New England
Board
|
Executive Director
Naomi Bar-Yam, Ph.D
Clinical Director
Ilene Fabisch, IBCLC
Medical Advisory Board
Dr. Kathleen A. Marinelli IBCLC, FABM, FAAP, Neonatologist and Director of Lactation, Connecticut Children's Medical
Center
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, U of CT School of Medicine, American
Academy of Pediatrics, CT Chapter Breastfeeding Coordinator Medical Director, Mothers' Milk Bank of New England
Dr. Frank Bednarek, Chief of Neonatology - Director of Neonatal
Fellowship- Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Professor of OB-GYN
- University of Massachusetts Medical School - U Mass Memorial Health
Care
Dr. Anya Koutras, IBCLC, University of Vermont
Dr. Tina Smillie, IBCLC, FABM, FAAP, Private Practice, Stratford CT.
Planning Board
Arlene Bernstein, Esq.
Kim Barbas, RN, IBCLC
Jane Crotteau RNC, IBCLC
Lisa Enger RN IBCLC
Ilene Fabisch BS, IBCLC, LLL
Prof. Marcia Marker Feld
Erin Gray, MPH
Raechel Hackney, RN, IBCLC
Pam Higgins, RN IBCLC
Leslie Kerzner, MD
Gail Levy, RN, IBCLC
Tanya Lieberman, IBCLC
Jessica Mutch, CPA
Prof. David Newburg
Bettina Pearson, RN, IBCLC
Barbara Shepherd, MD
Karen Sussman-Karten, RN IBCLC
Ruth Vishniavsky, RDH, MS,CLC
Susan Worden, RNC, IBCLC
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|