The Yorkton Milk Drop has celebrated its first anniversary, with area mothers donating over 160 liters of human milk to children in neonatal units through the Northern Star Milk Bank.
Carolee Zorn, manager of the maternity and emergency departments at the Yorkton Regional Health Centre, says they were excited to establish the milk drop in the city, because they want to have breast milk available for babies who need it.
“When you think about it, cow’s milk works for cows, but a lot of humans have trouble digesting cows milk, so that tells you the human body wasn’t built to do that. The human body was built to digest human milk. With babies especially, they sometimes have an immature gut, and formula takes a different process to digest. Breast milk just makes sense for human babies... Formula is an acceptable substitute, but if you can give your baby breast milk, you’re doing a good thing.”
Some of that milk will soon be coming back to the city. The pasteurized milk will soon be bought back by maternity wards in Sunrise to give mothers another option to help feed their babies, outside of formula or an IV, two options currently used when a mother cannot feed her child.
“I know some breastfeeding moms are very passionate, they want their baby to have just human milk, this will give them that option.”
Women who want to donate milk are screened like blood donors, Zorn says, with a blood test to ensure that the milk will be healthy for babies. The milk is also pasteurized before it reaches the children.
The establishment of the milk drop was thanks to a group of passionate moms in the region, and Zorn thanks them for making the milk drop work.
“We really appreciate that there are mothers in the region who have grasped on to the concept of donating their milk.”
One of those mothers is Crystal Dyste, who has wanted to participate in milk donation since the birth of her first child eight years ago. Now with her last child, Dyste says she wanted to be able to give peace of mind to families.
“Being able to give hope and peace in a time of fear and uncertainty, it’s one more thing a mom doesn’t have to worry about. We can help provide for their baby in a way they are unable to do in the moment, and know that they’re still able to provide their baby with what’s best for them.”
Dyste knows what it’s like when a mother can’t feed their children.
“One of the reasons I had to stop breastfeeding my daughter was I had emergency surgery, and I had complications, and I had to be in the hospital for six weeks. The struggle with trying to get through that recovery process, still providing milk, still trying to take care of my baby when I couldn’t even keep her with me, because I wasn’t able to hold her, knowing that is there is a relief... In my case, I already felt so unable to be there for my family as I sat in the hospital and the baby goes home with daddy every day. It’s one less thing to worry about, and I know that baby still gets what baby needs.”
For Dyste, she believes it’s a great start for the milk drop, and she wants to get more moms donating their milk.
“It actually excites me that there are people that don’t know about it, because there’s even more potential to reach out to women in our community to share this blessing with others.”
