Hurricane Beryl affected many communities in its path along the Caribbean, Louisiana, Mexico, and Texas in early July. Many people remain without a home and are leaning on group shelters just to get by.
In Houston, Texas, efforts to restore power lost due to the storm and tree damage took almost two weeks. Among the chaos were the breastfeeding mothers trying to care for their children. Many of these mothers pump and store their extra breastmilk in freezers and refrigerators… all which began to feel quite a bit warmer over the long, hot days without power.
One mother, Alexandra, was thinking through the hours she had until the breastmilk in her freezer would go bad. “Because CenterPoint wasn’t communicating, and they were like, ‘We’ll have a million people’s power restored by tomorrow,’ I thought, statistically speaking, we should be OK… But we got close to that 48-hour mark and I started freaking out about it.”
After eventually finding an area with cell service, Alexandra found an online post from another Houston mother who made her available freezer space open to any who could use it. Alexandra didn’t hesitate to comment. “And these wonderful women, I showed up at their doors to drop off milk at, like, 10:30 at night on a Tuesday, and they were like, ‘Come on over. Come give it to us. We know how hard this is.’” More mothers shared this story as the community generously acknowledged and valued the hard work it takes to breastfeed newborns and infants.
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Mothers across the globe pump milk in addition to traditional breastfeeding for a variety of reasons — including to increase milk supply, because they have trouble with latching, premature birth side effects, or birth deformities, to create a stash for days they may be apart from their baby, or to feed their babies while re-entering the workforce. Many others donate their excess breastmilk to milk banks such as the Mother’s Milk Bank of Austin, Texas (MMBA), or to one of the many milk banks included in the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA).
Donor milk is now frequently used in many hospitals across America, particularly for babies in the NICU, where premature and sick babies most commonly suffer from necrotizing enterocolitis. According to its website, MMBA has reduced the rate of necrotizing enterocolitis in newborns and infants by 90% in their first year by working with local hospitals within Austin to promote the use of donor breastmilk. Many families request donor milk for home use as well in situations like adoption, severe reflux or formula intolerance, GI disorders, congenital conditions, and other organ conditions.
Kim Updegrove, the executive director of Mothers’ Milk Bank in Austin, stated, “We have these complex roles between work and home management and child rearing, and all of that forces us to acknowledge that it really does take a village to get it all done…I love that about women – and moms specifically. No one is shy when it comes to the needs of an infant. We reach out and ask for things we wouldn’t ask for ourselves. We’re asking for our infants.”
