{"id":93701,"date":"2019-06-03T19:15:11","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T01:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mercy-regional-medical-center-opens-breast-milk-donation-center\/"},"modified":"2019-06-03T19:15:11","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T01:15:11","slug":"mercy-regional-medical-center-opens-breast-milk-donation-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mercy-regional-medical-center-opens-breast-milk-donation-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercy Regional Medical Center opens breast milk donation center"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mercy
Mercy Regional Medical Center can now accept donations of breast milk from moms to help infants in need across the country. The milk is sent to Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank in the Denver area, an organization that redistributes the milk.<\/span>Mark Reis\/The Gazette via Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

New moms in La Plata County may now share their excess milk with newborns in need through a new donation center at Mercy Regional Medical Center.<\/p>\n

Some of the earliest meals for sick newborns at Mercy come from donated breast milk through the Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank based in the Denver area, said Jennifer Hyson, director of women\u2019s services. The new center in the Family Birth Center<\/a> will allow new mothers to contribute milk back to the bank, an organization that redistributes the milk across the country.<\/p>\n

Donor milk is preferable to formula, which can be more difficult for some babies to digest, said registered nurse Din\u00e9 Campbell.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently, we use donor milk for any infants who require supplementation due to medical conditions such as: hypoglycemia, jaundice, low birth weight and many others,\u201d she said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

A handful of babies in the neonatal intensive care unit use milk donated through the bank each month, Hyson said.<\/p>\n

Now, mothers in La Plata County can help other children and families in need, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been benefiting from the Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank for several years. It is a really good feeling to know we can contribute back,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

One particular mother was so excited about the opportunity she started donating to the Mothers\u2019 Milk Bank directly, before the drop-off site for milk was opened at Mercy, Hyson said. Several others have already expressed interest, Hyson said.<\/p>\n

Any mother who has excess milk she doesn\u2019t expect to need is welcome to donate it, Hyson said.<\/p>\n

Milk that is within six months old may be taken by the new donation center. Interested women must set up an appointment with the lactation office for an initial screening and blood test before donating, Hyson said. Mercy covers all the costs associated with the screening, she said.<\/p>\n

For more information, call the lactation department at 764-3144.<\/p>\n

mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributions benefit infants across country<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5843],"tags":[747,68,668],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-93701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-living","tag-children","tag-mercy-regional-medical-center","tag-public-health"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93701"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=93701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}