New Idea's parenting expert and mum of four, Antonia Kidman shares her expertise on family issues.

Mother's Milk

Learning to breastfeed wasn't easy for me, so I'm thrilled to support the milk bank.

Many new mothers follow the mantra 'breast is best'. Only minutes after Lucia, our first child, was born she was placed on my breast and I remember feeling surprised it happened so soon.
I was so focused on the delivery I hadn't thought much beyond getting through the birth. On the night of day three when my milk came in, things took a dramatic turn. Frequent feeding and unsettled periods were a shock for me as a first-time mum.

I was sore and frustrated but anxious to get her feeding correctly. Fortunately, with the help of the midwives, I was able to breastfeed her confidently by the time I went home.

I look back on that experience as a baptism of fire. I'm glad everything worked out as it would have been disappointing and frustrating had I struggled to feed. And with each baby I had, my confidence and determination has increased.

While we all want what's best for our babies, not all women have the choice to breastfeed. Sometimes illness, medication or even postnatal depression can affect milk supply.

Marea Ryan is a Gold Coast midwife and nurse unit manager who hopes to change this by making human breast milk available to all babies in need. It's well known that human breast milk is the ideal food for babies. It's a balanced source of nutrition and contains a variety of nutrient and immunological factors that cannot be replicated.

While using donor milk has historically been a very common practice, and still is in many countries, it's not something we do in Australia. The Mothers Milk Bank is a non-profit company established by Marea to provide pasteurised donor mothers' milk to infants in need. The goal is to supply milk to premature and sick babies when human milk is not available, up to the age of at least six months. The result would be all Australian children having the foundation for optimal physical and neurological development.

'The response from donors has been incredible. We have 100 registered in the Gold Coast alone,' Marea says. 'We have enough donors to supply Sydney and Melbourne, but what we need is money. It costs a lot. Last year 8000 babies in Queensland were not fed human milk - of these 4300 were sick or preterm babies.'

To support the establishment of Australia's first milk bank, visit www.mothersmilkbank.com.au.

Breast Milk Facts

• Babies who are fed breast milk exclusively for six months have protection from infection until they're two years old. (Most hospital admissions between 12 to 18 months are due to infection.)
• There are components in breast milk that stimulate brain cell development.
• The incidence of juvenile diabetes is 50 per cent higher in children who are artificially fed.
• Breast milk helps to prevent Necrotising Enterocolitis (NEC), a condition of preterm babies in which the lining of the intestinal wall dies.
  

Read Antonia Kidman's latest column in this week's New Idea, out now!

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