Learn about Nurturely's recent Perinatal Planetary Health Equity Panel and how climate change is affecting perinatal health. To honor Earth Day, l ...
Learn About Nurturely’s Programs: Tiny Human Survival Training
Join the upcoming cohort of our Tiny Human Survival Training program! The partner parenting cohort, Tiny Human Survival Training’s goal is to ...
Learn About Positively Pregnancy and Speaker Dr. Eileen Johnson
Learn more about Nurturely's Positively Pregnancy group including how to join. Nurturely’s Postively Pregnancy group allows members to connect wit ...
Meet Nurturely: Sabia
As part of our relaunch we are highlighting our staff, volunteers and board members. Next up: Sabia! Describe your background and what led you to ...
Meet Nurturely: Marissa
As part of our relaunch we are highlighting our staff, volunteers and board members. Next up: Marissa! Describe your background and what led you t ...
Meet Nurturely: Jasmine
As part of our relaunch we are highlighting our staff, volunteers and board members. Next up: Jasmine! Describe your background and what led you t ...
Human Milk Sharing – Part II
With the help of a financial gift from Hannah and Zachary Johnson, the UC San Diego Health will create the region’s first breastmilk bank (The San Diego Union-Tribune) led by Dr. Lisa M. Stellwagen, MD. The goals of the bank are “to help mothers breastfeed, to improve breastmilk donation and to ensure that all premature or ill babies in Southern California have access to donor milk” (UC San Diego Health).
Human Milk Sharing – Part I
Human milk is a critical resource for infants designed to meet the needs of baby at every stage of development. Human milk is alive with immune cells, stem cells, and microbes that come from both the lactating parent and from the baby (Hassiotou et al., 2013; Funkhouser and Bordenstein, 2013). For example, a thick yellow milk produced a few days after birth called colostrum (American Pregnancy, n.d.) can be thought of as baby’s first immunization (Khan, 2012)…. The use of donor milk (or “milk sharing”) is not a new practice for humans. “Allomaternal care” and shared nursing has long been a part of many, if not most, human cultures yet there are no federal laws regulating the use of donor human milk or milk sharing. Milk banks provide a degree of quality control by screening donors based on lifestyle, teaching donors about best practices for expression, storage/transport of breastmilk as well as pasteurizing the donated milk.