If there’s one thing Jacquie Nutt knows from her decades as a lactation consultant, it’s that breastfeeding may be natural, but it’s not easy!
That’s why when Jacquie moved from South Africa to take up a job in Palmerston North, it made sense to set up a local milk bank to provide breastmilk for mums having issues with supply or illness.
In May 2021, Whāngai Ora became the first milk bank to open in the North Island, supplying Palmerston North Hospital’s neonatal unit and the wider community.
“It would not have been possible without the Wright Family Foundation,” says Jacquie. “I asked [philanthropist] Chloe Wright if we could use the kitchen at Te Papaiōea Birthing Centre twice a week – as it was unused then – and she agreed. A few weeks later, she contacted me to say it was such a splendid idea that she would pay me for a year to set it up.
“I didn’t see the point of paying me when we had no funds to purchase the needed equipment, so I asked her to give an untied grant. For the first year, a group of us worked for free to set up the charitable trust and get things going.”
Jacquie now volunteers between 30 to 60 hours a week pasteurising the donated milk to make it the safest alternative option to a mother’s own milk.
The donors are screened and come from as far away as Napier, as well as depots in Dannevirke and Levin, who also distribute milk.
“Sometimes the evening calls of desperation are hard,” admits Jacquie, 64. “One Wellington mum drove up to collect milk for her tiny premature baby when Wellington NICU ran out of milk. For six months, we fed twins of a mum undergoing chemotherapy. We have also donated a two- week supply to a mum dying of liver cancer while her whānau tested donors in her area.”
A week’s supply from the milk bank’s super-donor in Napier.
When Jacquie gave birth to her own children in Zimbabwe, she points out there were no milk banks. “Women definitely did not share milk because of the fear of HIV. Most people breastfed.”
In 2002, Jacquie was part of a group that started Milk Matters in Cape Town. She invited Professor Anna Coutsoudis (who had set up the first post-HIV milk bank in South Africa) to speak and the milk bank community grew from there.
“I’ve never experienced anything but interest and excitement when talking about milk banks,” says Jacquie. “I love interacting with the donors, who are so incredibly generous and loving, and seeing recipients move on to self-sufficiency.
“It’s also been a huge boost to see the improvement in breastfeeding rates, since MidCentral DHB had the lowest rates in the country till recently.”
For more information, visit whangaiora.org.nz
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