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News and Events
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On September 12, 2013, MMBNT will celebrate our 9th anniversary with a luncheon at Ridglea Country Club. The program will feature Mayor Betsy Price along with stories from donor moms and recipient babies. This fun event is the highlight of our year! Please join us! For more information and to receive an invitation email info@texasmilkbank.org or call 817-810-0071 In the News! Univision Television recently featured our Miami depot and our milk bank. Thanks to Lactivist in Louboutins for blogging about her recent behind-the-scenes tour and Fort Worth Moms Blog for highlighting the life-saving gift of donor human milk.
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Find us @MMBNT
Are you following us on Pintrest yet?
Find us @texasmilkbank
Please subscribe to our BLOG: Texasbreastfeeding.org |
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Greetings!
 The first week in August each year is World Breastfeeding Week and the entire month is World Breastfeeding Month. As you can imagine, this is a busy month for MMBNT. Enjoy reading below about our BIG event- The Big Latch and then learn more about this incredible annual event. This month's COMMUNITY PARTNER is the Texas Breastfeeding Collaborative. A wonderful program to support tiny Texans.
Our feature mom in MOMS CONNECT is a sweetheart of a donor mom from Mississippi, Alicia Barnes. Then check out our Facebook Friends sporting their MMBNT t-shirts around town. Happy WORLD BREASTFEEDING MONTH!!! Thank you all for your support of MMBNT, Amy |
Big Latch On
|  A record attendance of 641 people arrived for the 2nd Annual Family Expo & Big Latch On at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens on Saturday, August 3, 2013. The event surpassed last year's attendance and of any in Texas, making The Big Latch On in Fort Worth the largest in the state.
Hosted by the Tarrant County Breastfeeding Coalition and Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas, The Big Latch On served as an opportunity to support the breastfeeding community and raise awareness for breastfeeding support and knowledge.
 Saturday's Big Latch On began in the morning as attendees visited with vendors in the Family Expo. The expo had it all, from birth professionals and IBCLC's to jewelry, baby clothing and more. The children also had a spot to play, as Winks and Wiggles provided demo classes throughout the day, including baby and toddler yoga, and play and sign story time.
The official count for The Big Latch On began at 10:30am. Mothers and children sat on blankets throughout the garden while volunteers counted the breastfeeding moms. Volunteers recorded an outstanding number of 194 moms and babies breastfeeding simultaneously.
 The youngest baby in The Big Latch On was 12 days old, and the oldest child was 47 � months. At the event were also three sets of twins and one tandem-nursing mother.
View more pictures from The Big Latch On in Fort Worth here on their Facebook page. And, if you would like to learn more about The Big Latch On and its international events, visit their website here.
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 Facebook Friends Share Photos
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Each month we feature photos from our Facebook Friends. This month, we asked you to send us photos of you in your Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas' PEACE, LOVE, SHARE shirts.
 | | We loved seeing Loreal Cooke rocking her MMBNT shirt while carrying her little one! |
 | | Katy Edgington and her kiddos are taking a break from their busy schedule to spend time together! |
 | | Kathleen Wilkinson and her family are having a blast on a day out! |
 | | Veronica Limon and her two girls are enjoying a day at the zoo! |
Want to be our Facebook friend? Click here to visit our Facebook Page and LIKE us today! Thank you!!
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Community Partners
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The National Initiative for Children's Healthcare Quality (NICHQ) is leading a statewide breastfeeding initiative in Texas called the Texas Breastfeeding Learning Collaborative. The collaborative is funded by the Department of State Health Services and has the overall goal of increasing breastfeeding rates in delivery hospitals by 30% over 5 years. Our very own Erin Hamilton-Spence, MD (president of the Board of Directors of MMBNT and local neonatologist) is the lead faculty member of this initiative in our region of the state! She is involved in training healthcare providers about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding and helping hospitals achieve breastfeeding support goals. In June, NICHQ staff made a trip to the milk bank to develop a learning video about donor human milk banking to use in training classes. Check out the video and more info about NICHQ and the Texas Breastfeeding Learning Collaborative. |
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Moms Connect
| Alicia Barnes
Starkville, Mississippi
Short on Height, Not on Compassion
Being 5'1" and skinny has its troubles. My pants have to be specialty, hemmed up, or I tread upon them. I have to climb on grocery store shelves to reach items that are not even on the top shelf. I don't even meet the minimum weight requirements to donate blood.
At the same time, I've always been amazed that modern medicine allows people to save each other. People live because someone took a few minutes one day to make a donation. I've never needed a blood transfusion, but what a comfort to know that if I or my family ever does, it's there because donors cared.
As I said, I'm petite and that sort of donation opportunity isn't available to me, but last year I learned about another life-saving opportunity: donor human milk.
Premature or ill babies need the gentlest, most nutrient-dense food. Breastmilk, provided by either their own mothers or donors, can literally save their lives. Pasteurized breastmilk is a living substance with antibodies that bolster the immune system and provide human specific gut flora that encourage good bacteria to grow.
Naturally optimized by the human body for human babies, breastmilk is lighter and more efficient at delivering nourishment. Research shows that babies who receive breastmilk have shorter stays in the NICU and fewer incidents of the often fatal necrotizing enterocolitis.
Using dry ice and insulated boxes, I have shipped a total of 425 ounces of breastmilk from Mississippi to Texas to be pasteurized and distributed. Since one ounce is typically three feedings for these tiny babies, I have contributed to over 1200 feedings and helped buy time for moms who were waiting for their own milk to come in.
I've been so blessed to have a healthy pregnancy, baby, and a phenomenal breastfeeding experience. Since I work away from home, I've pumped and frozen my excess milk since March 2012. When my child turned a year old, I shipped my excess breastmilk to the Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas. Before accepting me as a donor, the Milk Bank ordered and paid for a number of health screenings including blood tests and doctors' references. They also paid for the shipping fees. I just had to provide the milk and get it ready for Fed Ex. It's the easiest way I've helped save someone's life.
The hardest part about not pumping anymore was realizing it signified my last donation. As I put my third and final box in the mail last week, I knew that when I have other children I will be back to shipping my excess liquid gold to a Milk Bank. Because while I am short in stature, I have an abundance of compassion for those tiny babies and their families.
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