Kyle gets milk depot

By Kim Hilsenbeck.

There is a new bank in town. But the deposits and withdrawals aren’t your typical transactions.

Mothers’ Milk Bank, an Austin-based nonprofit, now has a collection drop-off/pick-up depot in Kyle. The organization pasteurizes and dispenses donor breast milk to babies born prematurely or with serious medical conditions. 

Breastfeeding or lactating mothers can donate their extra breast milk to help those at-risk little ones, giving them a fighting chance at life.  

Located at the Fellowship Church of Plum Creek, the center helps provide breast milk to babies in critical care situations around the Central Texas area. 

The Kyle depot opened in December 2013. The milk bank has 25 locations throughout the area.

“When a mother’s own milk is not available for a premature infant, donor breast milk is the next best thing,” says Wyana Eddleman, R.N., who attends Fellowship Church of Plum Creek and serves on the board of the Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin. She brought the idea to her church. 

Eddleman is a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at St. David’s Medical Center in Austin and has seen the positive benefits of donor milk first hand.

“Breast milk helps babies thrive,” she said. “And for the most fragile infants, it helps reduce the odds that they develop a life-threatening intestinal infection. It’s truly miraculous.”

Moms like Kelley Cagle of Buda, who used the breast milk bank five years ago when her son Camron was born, say the service is a huge benefit to the community. And having a location here in Kyle, she said, is great.

“I had to drive to St. David’s in Austin every week,” she said.

Cagle’s son wasn’t born prematurely, but a pregnancy complication led to several health issues for the baby. He is blind, deaf and eats with a feeding tube in his abdomen because of problems with his esophagus.

Camron went to the NICU immediately after birth; he remained there nearly four months. Cagle was able to produce and pump her own breast milk during that time. When Camron went home, doctors made Cagle stop pumping; she got mastitis three times and was diagnosed with Lupus.

She said using donated breast milk was a gift and it helped her feel she was doing the right thing for her baby.

“As a mom of a child that hovered near death several times, it was the only thing I could do, especially after they told me I couldn’t pump anymore,” Cagle said. “I was really grateful that those mommies were able to help,” she said of the donors.

Mothers like Cagle and NICU nurses recognize the value of donated milk.

“Nurses in the NICU call it liquid gold,” she said. “It’s very highly regarded.”

And that’s why Cagle was so glad to hear about the depot at Fellowship Church of Plum Creek.

She also wanted to make sure people knew the Mothers’ Milk Bank is safe and trustworthy. She heard a story not long ago about women getting breast milk donations from Craigslist.

“People were getting milk off the site from random people; babies were getting E.coli and other problems,” she said.

Tests of Craigslist acquired milk revealed staphylococcus, E. coli, salmonella and bacteria found in human waste.

But Mother’s Milk Bank, Cagle said, screens all the donor applicants and then the milk is pasteurized before it’s distributed.

Kim Updegrove, executive director of the Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin, said the demand for donor human milk continues to grow as more hospitals specify donor milk for feeding premature infants whose mothers do not have breast milk.

According to Allie Schlepp of Mothers’ Milk Bank, 600 ounces is the equivalent of 1,800 meals for their tiny baby recipients.

“It’s an amazing and generous act from one mother to another’s baby,” Updegrove said. “We are grateful to Fellowship Church for making it convenient for women in Hays County to become milk donors.”