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This week’s CHAMPion of the Week is Mother’s Milk Bank of Mississippi in Flowood, MS, the first and only human milk bank in the state! The milk bank announced it has passed formal inspection by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, and began processing milk donated by Mississippi mothers two weeks ago. The first batch of milk was delivered to Merit Health River Oaks’ Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and to Mississippi Baptist Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on Thursday, December 17, 2015.
Linda Pittman, Executive Director of the milk bank, says that being a fully functional milk bank has been a five-year process involving multiple donations of time, funds, and milk by Mississippi volunteers. Research shows that human milk is life-saving, especially for infants who are preterm or who have special medical challenges and illnesses. According to the March of Dimes, Mississippi leads the nation in the number of preterm births. Currently 12.9% of all births, and over 15% of births in Hinds County, are premature. That translates to more than 5,000 premature babies born each year in the state. To learn more, visit the website or follow the Facebook™ page for the Mothers Milk Bank of Mississippi. For volunteer opportunities, contact Linda Pittman at 601-613-0531 or linda@msmilkbank.org.
 John Purvis, MD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, a Pediatrician at Regional One Health in Memphis, Tennessee, and an American Academy of Pediatrics Fellow. He is also one of the CHAMPS Pediatrician Physician Leads at Regional One, where he has been promoting better breastfeeding practices and championing rooming-in. We are honored to be working with John and thankful to him for speaking at 2 of our recent conferences (September 11, 2015 in Tupleo, MS and November 12, 2015 in Jackson, MS). John and the Regional One team have made great strides in establishing rooming-in. Most exams now occur in patient rooms. Beginning January 1st, mothers and babies will no longer be separated during the transition from labor and delivery to postpartum, but remain together for the associated exams and travel. This change is an important step towards John and the team’s vision for maternity practices at Regional One, where ideally mothers and babies would not be separated except for medical reasons and breastfeeding rates would increase. John reported a 14% exclusive breastfeeding rate this month (while mothers and babies were in the hospital), up from 9% last month. John meets weekly with a Baby-Friendly committee, and Regional One entered the Discovery phase of the 4-D pathway in June 2015. Congratulations and best wishes on the Baby-Friendly journey!  Apexa Patel, BA, CHAMPS Project Coordinator, was nominated as CHAMPion of the Week for her exceptional work coordinating the two recent CHAMPS conferences! These two conferences were the CHAMPS New Orleans Learning Summit on 10/20-10/21 in New Orleans, LA and the CHAMPS Mississippi Learning Summit on 11/12/15 in Jackson, MS. They focused on implementing the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding and practices to enhance breastfeeding rates and maternity care practices in hospitals. Apexa says, “The conferences were a great opportunity to see how much the CHAMPS hospitals have accomplished over such a short period of time.” In addition to organizing conferences for CHAMPS, which involves coordinating with speakers, attendees and hotels, creating flyers, and settling finances, etc., Apexa also created and manages our website [CHAMPSbreastfeed.org]. CHAMPS is housed at Boston Medical Center’s Breastfeeding Center, where Apexa began as a student intern in Fall 2013 while pursuing her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Boston University. As a student intern, Apexa was known for her sharp mind and outstanding work ethic, so when she graduated in Summer 2015 we hired her full-time. Apexa is currently enrolled in a part-time clinical social work program at Boston College and plans to continue onto medical school to eventually work as a pediatrician and clinical social worker. In all her spare time, Apexa also works for a qualitative research study at Boston’s Veteran’s Affair Hospital and volunteers at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Youth Sanctuary. Note: This post has been transferred from CHAMPSbreastfeed.org. There were originally 2 comments. You can view them in this document. |
CHEER Champion of the weekEach Monday (besides public holidays), we will recognize a CHEER Champion for all the support they have provided for CHEER, CHAMPS, or the general public. Archives
April 2021
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