Mint.com estimates that disposable diapers for the first 12 months of a child’s life cost about $800.
For families who are struggling to buy food, medicine and other necessities, this can be a huge burden.
The Junior League of Boca Raton is helping alleviate that need in south Palm Beach and northern Broward counties with its diaper bank.
It distributes about 20,000 diapers a month for about 500 children in need through 10 local social service agencies, including Family Promise of South Palm Beach County, which serves homeless families, the Florence Fuller Center in Boca and Women in Distress in Deerfield Beach.
“The need is great,” said Harlee Ann Samuels, chair of the diaper bank: Twenty-two percent of children under age 5 in Palm Beach County are living in poverty.
The Junior Leagues’s diaper bank was started in 2011 when Huggies, discovering that 1 in 3 moms were struggling to buy diapers, reached out to see if the organization could manage the distribution of 200,000 free ones. The all-volunteer Boca league went to work to find agencies that help families in need, got donated storage space and got to work.
Now the diaper bank also accepts donations of cash and diapers and conducts diaper drives, supported by the community and other organizations. Recently, the Rainbow of Love Preschool, the local Lilly Pulitzer store and others collected diapers for the bank.
Currently, the bank only distributes disposable diapers. Even though using cloth diapers can save a family thousands of dollars over three years, many families in need don’t have access to their own laundry facilities, Samuels said. Many laundromats don’t allow cloth diapers, and even some child care centers won’t accept them.
At the diaper bank, Samuels leads a committee of 12 Junior League volunteers, who coordinate diaper drives, drop-off locations and distribution to the agencies who serve the parents.
It’s fulfilling work.
“I know that babies are being taken care of,” Samuels said. “It’s all about the babies.”
HOW TO HELP The Junior League Diaper Bank accepts donations of all brands and sizes (newborn to pull-up) of disposable diapers, even open packages. They especially need size 6 months. Diapers can be dropped off at these locations:
And a couple of diaper drives:
Monetary donations can be made to the “Every Little Bottom” project at the Junior League’s website.
Like Junior League of Boca Raton Diaper Bank on Facebook.
- CHARLENE PACENTI
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Amanda Nickerson, executive director of the International Breast Milk Project, with her two daughters.
An international charity that collects donated breast milk for sick infants in Africa and in NICUs across the United States is based right here in Boca Raton.
Executive Director Amanda Nickerson, a mom of two with a third on the way, runs the International Breast Milk Project, which delivered 11,000 ounces (2,375 bottles) of donor breast milk to South Africa just last month.
Moms all over the country – many of them champion pumpers whose babies cannot consume all the milk they have stowed in the freezer – are donating it, rather than pouring it down the drain.
For sick babies, it can be a life saver.
Twenty-five percent of the milk donated through the IBMP is earmarked for organizations in South Africa, where HIV is rampant – an orphanage in Durban and neonatal intensive care units in Cape Town hospitals.
Many babies who need donor breast milk are born preterm.
The region’s high HIV rate causes many complications for breastfeeding, chief among them that the virus can be transmitted through breast milk. Babies can be born preterm, before the mom’s milk comes in. Mothers may die of HIV/AIDS, soon after giving birth, or abandon a baby who has the virus. They end up on the Durban orphanage’s doorstep.
In Cape Town NICUs, preterm babies born at 3 to 5 pounds, can be provided donor breast milk via a doctor’s prescription. For them, an exclusive diet of human milk, which is easier to digest, is their best chance of survival.
“These babies wouldn’t live without it,” Nickerson said. “It’s that extreme.”
The International Breast Milk Project started in 2006 with Jill Youse, a mom in Missouri who realized her daughter would never consume the freezer full of frozen breast milk she had pumped when she returned to work.
Tossing it seemed a waste, so she searched for a way to donate it.
She found the Durban orphanage, which was pleading for milk donations.
Youse formed a partnership with Prolacta Bioscience, a for-profit company, to process the milk for donation.
Once the project was featured on Oprah and the national news, Youse became overwhelmed and started looking for help. Nickerson, who was consulting for nonprofits after the birth of her second child, got involved as a milk donor, then as a volunteer. (She has worked with the Red Cross and the American Cancer Society in Miami). She took over as executive director of IBMP two years ago.
The IBMP’s partnership with Prolacta continues: After the 25 percent of the first 400,000 ounces of donated breast milk is processed for infants in South Africa and other countries in need, Prolacta uses the remaining 75 percent to make its fortifier for critically ill and premature infants, which it sells to in NICUs in the United States.
Prolacta donates a dollar to IBMP for every ounce of milk that remains in the United States, Nickerson said. That money is used to support local milk banks in Africa, among other projects.
So far, IBMP has donated 288,682 ounces of milk to Africa, according to its website. The shipping company Quick International donates its service to keep the milk frozen and transported there.
As a for-profit company, Prolacta’s involvement with milk donations has its critics. But it’s a way for IBMP to get its milk processed safely for transport, an expensive process.
“They do everything to ensure that it’s as safe as it could possibly be,” Nickerson said.
There are nonprofit milk banks around the country, but none in South Florida. One is under development in Orlando.
IBMP can take donations from anywhere. The rigorous application process starts online. All materials, storing and shipping supplies are sent to the donor’s door. FedEx picks it up.
In between, donors need doctor’s notes, a blood test – IBMP also sends a technician to the donor to do it – and more to be sure they qualify.
For Nickerson, it’s a way to do something good with the excess milk. And it doesn’t cost you a thing.
TO LEARN MORE Get the details on milk donation and read more about IBMP’s work at its website
Follow IMP on Twitter @GiveMilk
Keeping notes through your pregnancy and baby’s first year – from doctor’s appointments to labor pains to baby’s many “firsts” – can be maddening when you don’t even have time to shower most days.
But new features added to the mobile app from West Boca Medical Center make it easy to keep track of all that, as it happens.
The new maternity section of the app has a built-in journal, plus sections for noting the baby’s movement, mom’s contractions and at-your-fingertips info on the signs of labor.
There’s also a long list of baby names to mull over while you’re waiting for those doctor’s appointments, or you’re just too uncomfortable to leave the sofa.
The Baby’s First Year part of the app is also a convenient place to store all kinds of information, like immunization charts, eating charts and a growth tracker. It also has a place for recording “Baby’s Firsts” – likely to save anguish (weeks or months) later, as you sit down with that blank baby book trying to recall dates.
Also very helpful: a Diaper Bag Checklist, as well as a way to organize photos.
The app even plays lullabies.
Beyond the maternity section, you can also use the app to check ER wait times – and the let the hospital know you’re on the way, should the need arise.
The app is available for Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iTouch, as well as Android and Blackberry devices. It’s free.
Read more about it here.
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Photo courtesy Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
Whenever a baby is born at Boca Raton Regional Hospital, a lullaby plays over the intercom throughout the hospital, even in the outlying office buildings.
It’s an “aaaaaaaawwwww” moment that happens about 150 times a month.
The hospital’s Toppel Family Place is known for its mother-baby model of care, which supports keeping the two together as much as possible, under the care of a single nurse.
“We know that early bonding is really important,” said Karen Edlington, the hospital’s director of women’s & children’s services.
Even if a baby needs to spend some time in the neonatal intensive-care unit, hospital staff encourage the mother’s “kangaroo care” – holding the baby close – and breast-feeding.
The hospital offers a daily breastfeeding support group and 90 percent of patients do start breastfeeding. (A twice-a-week support group is free and open to the public, no matter where you gave birth). And the hospital calls new mothers to follow up after they have gone home.
“Early support is really important,” Edlington said.
Birth plans
Edlington said more women are looking to experience natural childbirth and a host of alternative birthing plans. Some women are choosing hynobirths, or to go through labor in a tub of water (many working through Amazing Births and Beyond).
Boca Regional also works with six midwives who practice with local obstetricians.
“We’ll support whatever kind of birth experience you want,” Edlington said. “It’s a privilege to be part of somebody’s birth.”
She is happy to conduct private tours or meet with parents-to-be to discuss birth plans.
An obstetrics-only anesthesiologist is available 24 hours a day. Two operating rooms are reserved for obstetrics. NICU
Boca Regional is certified as a Level 2 NICU, with an in-house neonatologist and nurses that are all trained to Level 3.
If babies need surgery, are born before 28 weeks gestation, or weigh less than 1,000 grams, they are likely to be transferred to specialists at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood or Miami Children’s Hospital.
Amenities
All rooms are private and decorated with homey touches – wooden headboards, armoires, nicely upholstered sofas and gliders. Some may share a bathroom if many of the rooms are occupied.
The hospital has wi-fi (and people are Skyping, Tweeting and Facebooking their births).
There’s a Daddy shower room.
Maternity patients can order food from a special menu.
There are no hard-and-fast visitation rules.
Classes
Besides breastfeeding support and child-birth classes, the hospital offers classes on infant CPR for the whole family; a class for siblings-to-be; prenatal yoga; baby signing and more.
Get descriptions of classes and more details on the hospital’s website.
To learn more
Maternity tours are 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. Saturdays. Call 561-955-3276 to register. The hospital is at 800 Meadows Rd. in east Boca.
Visit the hospital’s website.
For moms-to-be trying to decide where to give birth, medical expertise and support is the first consideration. After that, it’s usually about comfort.
West Boca Medical Center’s Birthcare Pavilion, which delivers about 200 babies a month, strives to offer both.
Thirty-six obstetricians and midwives deliver at West Boca, and an anesthesiologist is there 24/7. The hospital’s maternity care has been rated among the top 5 percent in the nation for the past five years by HealthGrades.com.
In case the baby arrives with complications, West Boca has the highest-level neonatal intensive care unit in the area, with a staff of 50 to watch over as many as 34 beds, including micro-preemies weighing less than 2 pounds. The NICU was expanded just two years ago. HealthGrades rates the hospital as “better than expected” in the newborn survival category.
Louise Toby-Harris, director of labor & delivery, has experienced the hospital’s success with preemies firsthand. Three years ago, her daughter gave birth to a baby girl at only 25 weeks into the pregnancy. The baby stayed in the NICU for four months.
Now, she’s a smart, energetic little girl, Toby-Harris said.
West Boca’s well-baby nursery can hold 24 infants at once, but the newborns are often rooming in with their moms for most of their stay.
The labor and delivery rooms – all private, with private bathrooms – are decorated to look more like a home bedroom than a hospital room, with dark wood armoires, wood floors and nicely tiled bathrooms. Framed pictures on the wall slide up to reveal the medical equipment for when the big moment arrives.
“We try to make it as homey as possible,” said Doreen O’Boyle-Neary, clinical manager of labor & delivery.
For those delivering via C-section, West Boca has two dedicated operating rooms in the maternity unit.
For postpartum recovery, the hospital offers two private suites and two “Princess Suites.” The luxury Princess suites cost an extra $150 a night (not covered by insurance). They can be reserved in advance for scheduled births; otherwise, it’s first come, first served. All other postpartum rooms are semi-private.
A lactation consultant is also available to assist with breast feeding.
On their last night in the hospital, the mother and partner are treated to a gourmet dinner.
BOCA BIRTH TRENDS
West Boca maternity staff say they are seeing more moms-to-be come in with research under their belt, many using midwives and also trying alternatives to pain medication, like the birthing ball.
“It’s their body and we let them do what they have to do,” Toby-Harris said.
NICU RATINGS
Level 2 – Babies need a little observation, or maybe a course of antibiotics. They usually stay in the NICU less than 10 days.
Level 3 – Babies who need more medical intervention. (West Boca has the only Level 3 NICU in Boca and northwest Broward).
OTHER DETAILS
Siblings can visit, but they may not stay overnight.
You can order food (like stir-fry, ziti and creme brulee) from the hospital’s restaurant-style menu.
To schedule a tour, call 866-904-9262.
Watch a video tour of the Birthcare Pavilion on YouTube.
CLASSES
West Boca offers several classes to get ready for your new arrival, and to care for the baby afterward. Check the schedulefor classes on childbirth, breastfeeding, new baby care, prenatal yoga and more at the hospital’s website. Select “Maternity” from the “Search by Topic” menu.
