Pumping For Grace: EBM For A Very Sick Child

Given we know a component in breast milk has the power to kill cancer cells, it comes as little surprise to me that a two-year old girl in Colorado, suffering from bowel disease is being kept alive on donations of expressed breast milk.

According to Babble Australia; Grace Vaught was so sick that she eventually refused to eat any food or to drink. Her mother was breastfeeding Grace's younger sibling and offered her some of her expressed milk to discover that Grace was able to stomach breast milk when she could not eat or drink anything else!

After attempting to express enough milk to meet Grace's needs, her mother went in search of milk from local lactators, Kate Tuttle at Babble reports:

"She turned to Mother’s Milk Bank, but found the cost prohibitive (it would cost $US200 a day to provide the milk Grace needs). The bank did respond to her plight with a $US1,000 donation of breast milk. Vaught then turned to her church, and through it to a virtual army of breastfeeding mothers. First, the Samaritans Ministry Christian Health Care raised $US21,000 to help buy breast milk for Grace; then, through a group called mamasource.com, women at Vaught’s church connected with other women in the area. Before long, dozens of local women began pumping a little extra every day for Grace."

Read the full article here.

A Mother's Failure To Breastfeed Is Society's Failure To Support Her

One of the authors of Reclaiming Sex After Childbirth: the survival guide, Jodi Cleghorn has shared her story of cross nursing her friend's baby on Type-a-Mum. Her assistance during the first couple of weeks of her friends new motherhood got her friend through the hardest moments of establishing her own breastfeeding relationship with her child. Cleghorn writes:

"Those two weeks were enough to get things back on track Michelle and Kynan. It didn’t solve all of the breastfeeding issues but it got Michelle through the roughest period, when she was most vulnerable to turning to formula."

Michelle's story reminded me of my own early breastfeeding days. I know that if it weren't for my lactivist friends I would have compromised my newborn daughter's gut flora with artificial infant milk. Genuine support during those early breastfeeding days is truly priceless! Sadly the responsibility lies with new mothers themselves to ensure they set up a good breastfeeding support network for themselves. But many women don't realise what forms of support they are going to need until the time comes, or until it is too late. Cleghorn's insight on this particular issue is brilliant. She states:

"...[T]he failure of a mother to breastfeed should not a personal strike against her, rather a failure of the community as a whole to support her in this most precious and important of jobs."

If breastfeeding were valued as it should be, new mothers wouldn't have to ensure they have adequate breastfeeding support, our society would simply provide this! Prior to industrialisation and the mass production and marketing of artificial infant milk women had better breastfeeding support. Women grew up watching other women breastfeed, it was the norm. They learned from the women in their lives, and when they struggled they had a community of lactating women right there to help cross nurse while they perfected the art themselves, just as Cleghorn did for her friend.

While it saddens me that breastfeeding in the industrialised world is so under-appreciated to the extent that cross nursing is seen as unusual, it is heartening to read about Cleghorn's experience and to know that there are women out there who are offering this kind of support to other mothers.

You can read the full article here.

Breast Milk, A Cure For Cancer?

Could it be that women have had the cure for cancer hidden in their jackets all along? An Australian news article suggests this could very well be a possibility:

“Six months before the child was diagnosed, I was doing research as part of my midwifery and read that breast milk contains a protein that causes cell death in malignant tumours,” the midwife said.

“I thought I would like to research this as an innovative treatment and when the child was diagnosed, I suggested they try it. There was nothing to lose and plenty to gain.”

The midwife went to an Australian Breastfeeding Association meeting in Maroochydore and asked mothers if they would be prepared to donate their milk to help.

She also advertised for breast milk in the Sunshine Coast Daily classifieds.

The child was given 500ml of breast milk each day mixed with fruit in a “smoothie”.

“Since those first weeks, donations have grown through word of mouth,” she said.

“There are so many generous wonderful breastfeeding mothers on the Coast who will do anything to help.

“We are extremely grateful to all those mothers who have donated their ‘magic milk’ as we are certain that it has been of substantial benefit.”

An examination of the child in Brisbane on Friday showed that there had been a significant turnaround in the girl’s condition." (Read the full article here).

This story is not the first of its kind. Dr Donn Bauer drank breast milk while recovering from the removal of a cancerous tumour in his vocal cord, stating "It's just a boost of energy, and it's not like drinking an energy drink or a couple cups of quick coffee, but a slow process of feeling good" (Breast Milk Used to Treat Cancer Patients). A 59 year old American man diagnosed with prostate cancer read some literature about the breast milk killing cancer cells and sought a lactating mother who was willing to donate expressed breast milk for him to drink daily in a fruit smoothie (Breast Milk as a Cancer Treatment & The Man Who Swears By Breast Milk).

The literature he referred to was about Anders Hakansson, a Swedish immunology student at Lund University. Hakansson mixed breast milk with cancer cells and his supervisor Catharina Svanborg discovered that the breast milk caused the cancer cells to self-destruct! (Breast Milk Component Kills Cancer Cells). 123Breastfeeding explains:

It turned out that the “assassin” was the protein alpha-lactalbumin, which turned lethal when combined with acid. Svanborg named the acidified protein “HAMLET” (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumors). HAMLET kills 40 different kinds of tumor cells in lab dishes, and human trials of HAMLET for treatment of bladder cancer look “very good” and show no side effects. (Promising Anti-Cancer Power of Breast Milk)

All reports so far state that there is yet to be a substantial scientific study concerning the potential for breast milk to cure cancer, but the anectotal evidence surely indicates this is an important area of research. Given the incredible immunological properties of breast milk and the numerous studies that attest to breast milk's ability to prevent all kinds of allergies and diseases, it does not seem far fetched that breast milk could cure the terminal illness that has stumped Western medicine.

Links on Cancer & Breast Milk

Breast Milk Component Kills Cancer Cells

Breast Milk Used In Cancer Fight - The Daily Mail, Sunshine Coast, Australia.

Breast Milk as a Cancer Treatment - The Lactivist

Can Breast Milk Cure Cancer? - About Breastfeeding.com

Promising Anti-Cancer Power of Breast Milk

Links on Immunology & Breast Milk

Immune Benefits of Breast Milk at a Galnce

Immune Factors in Human Milk

Wonders of Breast Milk

Your Walking Medicine Chest

101 Reasons to Breastfeed Your Child

* Special thanks to my friend who alerted me to this news story.

A Very Personal Gift

Last Christmas I gave someone the greatest gift I've ever given anyone. A gift that; boosts the immune system, protects children from sudden infant death syndrome, lowers a child's risk of developing asthma, diabetes, and food allergies later in life, and is great for bones, skin and teeth, to name just a few awesome facts about this gift: my breast milk.

Jay lives over 1370 kilometres from me. We met through an online homebirth community. When I was preparing for the birth of my child I drew a lot of strength and inspiration from her. I was anxious about the breastfeeding journey that lay ahead of me, but Jay had graciously shared her breastfeeding story online and she made me realise that with determination (and support) anyone could breastfeed.

During her third pregnancy Jay was diagnosed with hypoplastic breasts. This meant her breasts had underdeveloped milk glands, as the 007B website explains: "they simply don't have enough milk producing cells", which can lead to milk supply issues. If she wanted to exclusively breastfeed her child she would need the help of other lactating mothers.

To ensure that she gave her baby the best start to life and protected him from the dangerous health risks of artificial breast milk (ABM) Jay created a community of breast milk donors in her community. Jay adhered to the World Health Organisation’s recommendations that ABM should only be considered once the possibility of breast milk donations has been attempted.

As the holiday season was approaching Jay became concerned about the amount of frozen expressed breast milk (EBM) in her freezer and the availability of her donors during Christmas and The New Year. She appealed to the online homebirth community I belong to for more donors.

I learned that EBM could be packed with dry ice and sent around the world which meant I could possibly donate my milk to Jay. I replied to her request and said she could have all the milk I could express as soon as I figured out how to send it across the country. Thankfully others saw my response and before we knew it Jay had donors in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and regional areas too! Like the other donors, I just had to get a blood test to make sure I had no diseases that might pass into my milk and onto Jay's baby.

I kept my breast pump handy. Whenever I was feeling relaxed I would put it to my breast and start squeezing the handle. Before this I had only expressed to relieve engorgement or to get 5 to 10mls worth of milk to relive my child's conjunctivitis, blocked ears or runny nose (which I administered using a dropper). I found it painful and laborious.

Like birth, breastfeeding causes the mother's body to release oxytocin, a hormone which causes ejection reflexes such as the foetal ejection reflex that occurs during second stage labour, the ejection reflex women can sometimes experience during orgasm and of course the breasts' milk ejection reflex (or “let down”). But for oxytocin levels to rise enough to cause these ejections a woman must have a relaxed environment where she feels safe. Knowing this, whenever I sat down to pump for Jay and her baby I would try to get into the right frame of mind.

Other milk donor mums let me in on their secrets to successful expressing. These tips included pumping first thing in the morning and while your baby suckled at the other breast. Both tips helped a lot. Something else that helped was my own child's growing interest in the world beyond my bust. When in the company of others she became too excited to want to be still and feed, so the stretches between feeds over the holiday season became longer, and the milk was eager to flow when I pumped.

I discovered that trying to reach a certain numerical goal of EBM can threaten breastfeeding confidence. Watching my milk slowly drip into the pump made it seem like so little milk is made. Of course a baby is much more efficient at suckling milk from a breast and mother and baby's bodies work together to create optimum conditions for let-down, very different to pumping breast tissue with a piece of plastic. Still, there were times during when I thought to myself "oh my God, does my baby get any milk out of me?", "what's wrong with my breasts?", "all that work for so little payoff!" The flip side was looking at a jar full of milk that I made, which was very affirming. The thrill of fill a jar was fun.

I got to witness the magic of fore and hind breast milk. At the beginning of a feed breast milk is clear and watery. This is ideal for when the child needs to quench thirst but isn't up for a big meal. As the child stays at the breast the breast begins to let down thicker, white, fatty milk known as the hind milk. This is a gradual change from the clear to white milk (sort of like the same graduation from cold to hot water when turning on the hot tap at a kitchen sink). When first expressed all the milk blends in together, but when left in the fridge in a jar, undisturbed, it begins to separate. The thick white hind milk sits at the top, like skin forming on a soup, and the watery fore milk stays below.

Everytime I added more milk to my jar I swirled it around so that the fore and hind milk mixed together. I did this because otherwise the hind milk would stick stubbornly to the sides of the jar, and I didn't want that important milk to stay on my jar when it could be making it to a baby's tummy!

The jar I stored my milk in was an old mustard jar which had been sterilised. At the end of a sitting with my pump I emptied my expressed gold into the old mustard jar and kept it cool at the back of the fridge. Here it would keep for three days (ABA - Expressing and Storing Breast Milk). When the jar was full or close to full (or when the milk had been in the fridge for two days) I would pour the milk into a zip lock bag, seal it and place it in my freezer. Before using the zip lock bag I would label it with my name, the date the milk was expressed and the date it was frozen (sometime I would leave personal messages to Jay on the bags too, which made her smile months down the track). In my freezer the milk was safe for Jay's baby for three months if need be (ABA - Expressing and Storing Breast Milk).

Pumping for Jay on Christmas morning

Jay arranged to have a courier pack an esky with my frozen EBM & party ice (as it turned out dry ice was not safe for couriering) and fly the esky to her. This was no cheap feat! But such was Jay’s commitment to ensuring her son received breast milk.

I had wondered what a delivery man might think about border-hopping breast milk. But this was no ordinary delivery man. He and his wife felt it was an honour to be delivering something so precious from one family to another. As he packed the esky we talked about the wonder of breast milk, the potential for his wife to relactate and continue feeding their weaned two year old, and the amazing situation we found ourselves in thanks to Jay and her son. We both took photos of our special delivery before I farewelled my milk.

The following morning I received an email from Jay thanking me for the gift. The milk had arrived safely. We arranged a second courier date for March*. After that her son would be eating more solid foods and could get enough milk from Jay’s breasts alone. Thanks to Jay and her precious babe for giving us such a wondrous honour. There is nothing quite like the feeling of knowing I was able to give you a gift that can do so much for the heatlh and well-being of another person. I look forward to our little milk sibling children meeting one another in the future.


*In total I donated over 5 and a half litres of breast milk to Jay and her son, which flew (frozen) from Melbourne to Brisbane during the warmest months of the year.