{"id":161049,"date":"2017-02-19T10:31:27","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T15:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=161049"},"modified":"2017-02-16T20:48:23","modified_gmt":"2017-02-17T01:48:23","slug":"volunteers-deliver-breast-milk-by-motorcycle-to-preemie-babies-in-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/volunteers-deliver-breast-milk-by-motorcycle-to-preemie-babies-in-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteers deliver breast milk by motorcycle to preemie babies in need"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Each year babies around the world, including in the United States, die from the inability to access breast milk. In the U.S., these babies are often born prematurely and desperately need breast milk in order to properly fight infections and grow. Yet often,\u00a0their mothers struggle with producing milk due to\u00a0medical reasons and preterm birth.<\/p>\n

Chances of survival increase for premature infants given breast milk rather than formula. It improves<\/a> their cognitive and psychological development, reduces feeding-related deaths from conditions such as necrotizing enterocolitis, osteopenia, nosocomial infections and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, milk banks are popping up across the country, including New York State’s first milk bank, simply called New York Milk Bank. Women who have milk to donate are screened, their blood tested, their milk accepted and pasteurized, and then distributed to mothers and babies who need it.\u00a0They receive donations from mothers who have finished nursing their babies, those whose babies have died and who\u00a0want other children to benefit from the milk they are producing, or mothers who simply have more milk than their own baby needs.<\/p>\n

Recently, however, the milk bank\u00a0struggled to find an efficient way to deliver breast milk to those who need it in the every day bustle of New York City.<\/p>\n

“It occurred to me, while stuck in traffic one day, that motorcyclists ‘bob and weave’ their way through a traffic jam,” Julie Bouchet-Horwitz, a nurse practitioner, lactation consultant, and founder of New York Milk Bank told Babble<\/a>. “So I did a ‘Google search’ for a female motorcycle club, thinking that women should be more receptive to the idea of delivering milk to babies in need.”<\/p>\n

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