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http://www.columbiatribune.com/2006/Apr/20060427News007.asp

Got milk? Jill Youse does and she's sending it to help babies in South Africa.

By ANNIE NELSON of the Tribune's staff
Published Thursday, April 27, 2006
Columbia resident Jill Youse went from not wanting to breast-feed her daughter, Estella, to sending about 1,000 ounces of her milk to South Africa to feed HIV/AIDS-orphaned babies.
Don Shrubshell photo
Jill Youse displays some of the 1,000 ounces of breast milk she has frozen for shipment to AIDS orphans in South Africa.
Youse, 28, overproduces breast milk. In her first month of breast-feeding her daughter, now 9 months old, she realized she had more than Estella could ever use. Her freezer is so full with stored milk she said her family hasn't eaten a frozen meal in months.
Youse began researching possible uses for the milk and came across iThemba Lethu, a not-for-profit organization in Durban, South Africa, that takes in HIV/AIDS orphans.
The organization has a breast milk bank, started in 2001 by Professor Anna Coutsoudis of the University of Kwa Zulu Natal Medical School, said Penny Reimer, the director of the bank, in an e-mail from South Africa.
"The first baby to be admitted, Musa, he was malnourished and ill. So Anna persuaded a friend who was breast-feeding her own baby to express a little extra milk for a few days," Reimer wrote. "The result was so amazing that her dream began."
The World Health Organization recently completed a study that found infants who were not fed breast milk in the first two months of life were six times more likely to die than those being breast-fed.
The iThemba Lethu breast milk bank was started with funding from the United Nations Children's Fund, which estimates that 15 million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS. That number is expected to reach 25 million by 2010.
In Durban, Reimer said, each baby requires 1 liter of pasteurized breast milk a day. Youse's donation equals nearly 30 liters of milk, or almost 8 gallons.
Youse said she had reservations about breast-feeding Estella for two reasons. She is a pharmaceutical sales representative and didn't think it would fit in her busy schedule, and Youse's mother didn't breast-feed her. Youse was born in the '70s when, she said, advertising for baby formula implied it was superior to anything the human body could create. Youse said her mother now wishes she had breast-fed.
Youse's husband, Jeremy, a 26-year-old medical student, was seeing firsthand the benefits of breast-feeding a baby during his obstetrics and gynecology rotation. He started putting articles about breast-feeding on the fridge and around the house.
Finally, he and Youse's grandmother, Mildred Early, persuaded her to breast-feed. When Youse discovered iThemba Lethu, Early became the first donor of $1,000 toward Youse's own not-for-profit organization, the International Breast Milk Project.
Youse hopes her organization might one day supply what she calls "liquid gold" to milk banks around the world.
Breast milk, according to iThembu Lethu's Web site, contains cells and antibodies that are active in fighting infection along with fatty acids not found in infant formulas that are important for brain development and other body processes.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also advocates breast milk as the optimal form of nutrition for infants.
Youse's organization eventually will need financial support to ship the milk around the world but also will need milk to ship. "A mom could increase the number of times she pumps a day while still nursing her baby. That can help increase milk production," said Youse's lactation consultant, Patt Stewart, a registered nurse and an internationally board-certified lactation consultant.
A mother's breast milk production responds to a baby's demand, Stewart said. By doing extra pumping, the mother can trick her body into producing more milk.
For now, Youse is taking baby steps. Her next goal is to personally take a second shipment of breast milk to South Africa this summer. "That is one of my dreams," she said. "To give those HIV orphans hugs and kisses this summer and meet Penny."