In Canada, 1 in 10 babies will require care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) because they are born sick or premature. In Alberta, that number is 1 in 8. One of the most important things that a mom with a NICU baby can do is provide breastmilk for her baby as it will help her baby grow bigger, heal faster, avoid infections and go home sooner compared to feeding formula or donor human milk.
Unfortunately, many families cannot afford to rent the hospital-grade breast pump required to sustain mom's milk supply when her baby is in the hospital for weeks or months. So babies of low-income families have been unfairly denied their mother's milk.
The MOM Project, a program of The Ohana Support Foundation, fills this gap by providing low-cost hospital-grade breast pump rentals to low-income families with babies in Calgary NICU's. We offer flexible payment plans, give parents all the equipment they need for the pump, provide telephone translation when language barriers are present, and deliver/pick up the kits at the hospital or the family's home. Each family is also given a blanket for their baby that has been made by a generous volunteer.
Since March of 2017, The MOM Project has grown from serving one hospital to providing the program at 4/5 Calgary area hospitals. In that timeframe, we have provided 148 rentals, which has helped 175 babies get their mom's breastmilk!
We are working towards our goal of providing The MOM Project to every Calgary NICU family who needs it, but we need your help! The remaining hospital in Calgary serves a low-income area of the city and we need to purchase more pumps before we can start offering rentals.
The funds raised in this campaign will help purchase breast pump machines, and the supplies needed for every pumping kit. If we surpass our goal, we will invest in the expansion of the program to serve more families in need of hospital grade breast pumps, to help our current families with longer rentals, or purchase pumps to donate to families with babies who may never be able to breastfeed. Because we are 100% volunteer-run, all proceeds go directly to helping families and the program itself.
We hope that you are as 'Pumped for Preemies' as we are, and that you will 'Help Give Them the 'Breast' Start' by donating today, telling your friends and family about The MOM Project, and sharing our campaign on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube, Twitch, and all the other social medias you have!
Be sure to check out our website: www.momproject.ca for more details and testimonials from families we have helped.
