The 2008 GotBreastPump.comTM Breast Pump Challenge
Join us this year by taking the challenge and donating your breast pump. Our goal is to get 100 breast pumps to our families in need.
Those of us who use breast pumps or are breastfeeding our babies know the great gift that breastmilk provides to our sweet babies, but now that our precious ones have benefited from breastfeeding or breast pumps, how can we help others in need?
Now that your baby has become healthy and beautiful, it is time to give to those families in need.
The Got Breast PumpTM Campaign will assist these needy families by arranging the administration of your donated breast pumps to these wonderful parents, so that there miraculous babies can benefit from much needed breast milk from their mothers.
It’s easy!
Every day 1 in 8 babies born in the U.S. arrives too soon. Premature birth can happen to any pregnant woman, and no one knows why. The breastmilk of a mother of a premature baby is different from that of a mother of a full term baby and is designed to meet her baby’s needs at his specific stage of development.
Research shows unequivocally that human milk is the best food for human babies. Human milk is especially critical for premature and sick infants, who are at 10-fold greater risk for acquiring devastating intestinal infections if they are fed formula instead of human milk.
Neonatologists are most concerned about avoiding necrotizing entercolits (NEC), a disease that attacks the intestinal lining and eventually damages or destroys it, requiring emergency surgery to repair. Emergency surgery on a two-pound infant is both difficult and dangerous in itself. Mother’s milk makes a huge difference in how well these little babies will do after birth because it fights infection while providing nutrition.
1.5% of premature infants fed mother’s milk acquire NEC
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10-17 % of premature infants fed formula acquire this disease
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Of those babies who acquire NEC, up to 62% die from it
If there is no congenital problem and the baby was merely born too early, doctors will focus on keeping the infant healthy while waiting for the baby to grow big enough to go home. Chances are very good that the child will simply outgrow prematurity and have no lasting adverse health effects.
References
Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin - FAQ . 2003. 20 July 2005 < http://www.mmbaustin.org/faq.htm />.
March of Dimes . 2005. 20 July 2005 <http://www.marchofdimes.com/prematurity/>.
We would also like to make you aware that the FDA does not approve of the multiple use of breast pumps. Nor do any breast pump companies encourage the sharing of used single-use breast pumps.
The following is a statement provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration:
“There are certain risks presented by breast pumps that are reused by different mothers if they are not properly cleaned and sterilized. These risks include the transmission of infectious diseases...FDA believes that the proper cleaning and sterilization of breast pumps requires the removal of any fluid that has entered the pumping mechanism itself. If proper sterilization of the breast pump cannot be achieved, FDA recommends that it not be used by different mothers.”
All recipients will be required to sign a disclaimer stating that they are aware of the risks involved in using a donated or shared breast pump prior to receiving the donated breast pump.
