HUPdate 2-10

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Volume 23

HUPdate

Number 3

February 10, 2012

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

APrecious Commodity COMES TO HUP’S TINIEST PATIENTS Nothing beats mother’s milk when it comes to helping infants thrive. It contains all the vitamins and nutrients a baby needs in its first six months of life. Breast milk is especially good for premature babies because it is also filled with disease-fighting substances and is much easier for their underdeveloped GI tracts to digest. But many preemies can’t get the breast milk that is so essential to their well-being; the sucking motion needed to nurse is not yet developed. In addition, while moms of preemies are encouraged to pump milk for their babies, not all mothers are able to pump due to certain medical conditions while others attempt to pump but don’t make enough.

INSIDE A Special Martin Luther King Day Celebration................2 Speaking With HUP’s Leaders............................3 Free Employee Heart Health Event....................3

`` A new freezer will keep the donor milk readily available until needed. Helping to kick off the official start of the program were (l. to r) Al Black, Michael Posencheg, MD; Christine Jaslar; Kate Fitzpatrick; Jessica Lazzeri; Laura Carpenter; Victoria Rich, Iyalla Peterside,MD and Phyllis Dennery, MD.

Now, HUP’s new Donor Milk Program will help bring this powerful ‘medicine’ to its tiniest patients.

Breast Milk Leads to Better Outcomes Donor milk is breast milk that is pumped by a mother who is not the baby’s birth mother. Although a mother’s own milk is best for her baby, donor milk is a close second in terms of benefits. HUP’s donor milk program will provide this milk to babies in its neonatal ICU who weigh under 1,000 grams (the equivalent of a mere 2.3 pounds) and whose moms are not capable of pumping milk or are not making enough. “It will be for our most vulnerable infants,” said Laura Carpenter, BSN, RN, IBCLC, who led the initiative with Christine Jaslar, RN/IBCLC, both part of HUP’s Lactation Team. “Our goal is to provide donor milk to every infant who needs it.” She added that it could also be made available for other newborns in special circumstances, to be decided on a case-by-case basis. HUP and

hen you do things for your patients and W their children ... there’s nothing better. ­— Iyalla Peterside, MD

Children’s Hospital are the only birth hospitals within city limits offering this type of program.

Huge Benefits All of HUP’s donor milk will come from a nonprofit donor milk bank which thoroughly screens donors before accepting their milk and then, after receiving the milk, pasteurizes it. “We’ll keep it on hand for when it’s needed,” Jaslar said. It can last up to a year frozen. Donor milk is not inexpensive. It costs about $4.25 per ounce, but the return on investment is huge. “Preemies given mother’s milk get discharged three to four days sooner and also have a six to 10 times lower risk of getting a gastrointestinal complication called (continued on page 2)

MAGNET Fair Update...............4

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