Before we talk about a specific
KINDNESS, let’s take a moment to celebrate:
HAPPY BREASTFEEDING MONTH!
(Ok, ok, maybe it was BREASTFEEDING WEEK, and maybe it finished on
August 7, so maybe I am a little bit late…
I thought I had read that it was a MONTH, I thought I had TIME, I thought
it was all of August 2016, but now it looks like this important topic only got
assigned one lousy week. Unfair!! Let’s just call it a MONTH ok?? Let’s celebrate it all of August – cuz breastfeeding
should be celebrated!!!!)
To celebrate, here are photos of
some incredible moms I know who agreed to share their beautiful breast feeding
photos here:
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| Benny and his mamma |
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| Lena and her mommy |
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| Super Sam and his mom |
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| Ryker and his mother take a little break from eating |
Ok, so now that we have our general
celebration going on – let’s look at an amazing example of KINDNESS via breast milk. I saw a piece on the courageous Demi Frandsen
online*, and knew she needed to be dubbed a Kindness Activist. And when you hear her story I know that you
will agree.
Demi donated 17,503 ounces of her
breastmilk. That is 131 gallons. And she woke
herself up EVERY 3 HOURS to pump to do that.
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| Adorable baby Leo |
And really, her life at the time
must have been stressful enough, without the constant waking up and pumping… Her son, Leo, was born 2 months early and was
very sick with gastroschisis. He was in
the NICU at Children’s Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Demi talked with a lactation consultant there
when Leo was a couple of weeks old and still unable to receive her milk. The hospital was storing the pumped milk for
her and noticed how large her stored supply was getting – they were practically
running out of room to save it. So the
consultant introduced the idea of DONATING the milk. Demi explained to me how it works, “You
contact a lactation consultant or the milk bank directly. Then they do a quick
over-the-phone interview with you to make sure you're eligible (healthy, not on
medications, etc). They do a free blood draw and test to make sure you're
healthy. Then you bring your frozen milk to your nearest "milk depot"
and they ship it off. The milk bank provides all of your storage bags. You
don't pay a cent through the whole process.” So Demi decided to
save half of her milk for Leo and donate the other half.
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| Demi and Leo having a snuggle |
As Leo got older (still in the NICU),
because of his illness he still wasn’t able to take much milk, so Demi donated more
and more – in fact she donated the majority of the milk she pumped. She told me, “Donating his milk was emotional
every single time. That milk was for him.
I pumped every ounce for my baby’s benefit. But knowing that other babies and other moms
would benefit from it gave me the strength to want to give it away.”
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| What a sweet little fella |
Sadly, the last donation Demi made
was the toughest. Leo passed away unexpectedly
at only ten months of age, and Demi still had a large supply of milk stored,
which she very kindly donated. She weaned
her supply for another month and donated that milk, too. The milk “is just one more way Leo’s life has
touched so many. His milk is saving
lives of other fighters like him.”
I asked Demi how she felt donating
the milk, and if she had communicated with any of the fortunate moms who
received her milk to give their children.
She said, “It feels incredibly rewarding to donate. As a mom, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do
for my children. My two boys are my
whole world. And for moms who want so
badly to give their babies breastmilk but for various reasons can’t provide it,
it’s one way I can help. I have heard from a few moms whose
babies received or are receiving donor milk, and it's so rewarding to know that
they know the love that was in those ounces. They feel it, too. I was actually
able to donate a little of my milk to a close friend whose supply hadn't come
in very strong yet. That was a pretty amazing experience.”
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| Beyond beautiful - Leo and Demi |
And, like almost every single
Kindness Activist I have interviewed for this project, Demi downplayed her kind
actions. “I feel a bit sheepish
receiving so much praise for doing something any mom would want to do. I did
this all for my baby. Leo is
the one who should be recognized for all of this. His life was so full of
meaning, he changed so many lives. Especially mine.”
Thank you, Demi. Your actions were beyond KIND. You think “any mom” would do what you did, but
it took a lot of courage and strength.
And you DID IT. Thank you for
sharing your story – and Leo’s. May we
all take a moment today to pause, be thankful, and BE KIND like you.
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| Little Leo |
*Here is a link to the story that
introduced me to Demi’s Kindness: WOWT story about Demi
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