Best for Babes Launches 1st Nationwide Miracle Milk™ Mother's Day Stroll

April 22, 2014 - PRLog -- The Best for Babes® Foundation announces another first for healthier moms and babies – the 1st Nationwide Miracle Milk™ Stroll.  On Saturday May 10, 2014, thousands of parents, friends, family and community members, will gather in 67 parks and malls across the U.S. and Canada to raise awareness and funds so that donor milk becomes the standard of care in NICUs everywhere when a mother’s own milk is not available.  Best for Babes Celebrity Champions for Moms Kelly Rutherford and Alysia Reiner will be attending the NYC event.

In its most recent policy statement on breastfeeding and human milk, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states unequivocally that “the potent benefits of human milk are such that all preterm infants should receive human milk… If mother’s own milk is unavailable despite significant lactation support, pasteurized donor milk should be used.”

Human milk has been shown to reduce the risk of NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis) by 79%.  NEC is the #2 killer of premature babies—500 die and 5,000 are sickened in the U.S. and Canada every year.  It can cost between $200,000 to over $1,000,000 to treat, and may result in lifelong complications and treatment.

"Unfortunately, 60% of the nation’s NICUs do not use donor milk,” says Jennifer Canvasser, whose son died last year from NEC.  Canvasser is the founder of the NEC Society, a primary partner of the event.  ”It’s a tragedy that more parents, health care providers, medical directors and hospital administrators don’t know about donor milk’s existence, accessibility, safety and life-saving powers for babies in the NICU.”

“The science is clear:  Human Milk Saves Lives.  What we need are more solutions to help more moms get more Miracle Milk™ to more premature, sick and fragile babies,” says Best for Babes Co-Founder Danielle Rigg.

Registration for the Stroll requires a donation. Anyone can make a donation even if they cannot attend. The purchase of the official event Miracle Milk™ T-shirt is optional.  Donations of human milk are being accepted by www.HMBANA.org directly in conjunction with this event (mention the Stroll!).

Proceeds benefit Best for Babes and its partners NEC Society, Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), Reaching our Sisters Everywhere (ROSE), and the United States Lactation Consultant Association (USLCA), and will be used to fund education for parents, health care providers, medical directors and hospital administrators about the critical role of human milk and donor milk in saving premature, fragile or compromised infants.  The event is being generously sponsored by PJ’s Comfort® breast pump maker Limerick and Motherlove® Herbal  Company.

To register, donate, or learn more, visit:  www.bestforbabes.org/miracle-milk-stroll

Best for Babes is the only mainstream, independent non-profit dedicated to changing the cultural perception of breastfeeding and to removing the barriers—the Breastfeeding Booby Traps® – that prevent millions of parents annually from making informed feeding decisions and from realizing their personal goals. Best for Babes is harnessing the power of moms, celebrities, companies, advertising, the media and the medical community to build a true cause that can put pressure on the barriers, not moms, through education, advocacy, and national campaigns. We are raising awareness of the power of human milk (whether by breast, bottle or donor milk) as both prevention and treatment for pandemic diseases.