UKAMB Tenth Anniversary

UKAMB celebrated its tenth anniversary by holding a two day international conference at Chester Racecourse in September 07. We were delighted to welcome over 180 delegates and speakers from more than twenty countries. The response from participants was overwhelmingly positive with particular praise being given for the range and quality of the presentations.

The special conference dinner, also held at the Racecourse, was a great success with excellent food and live entertainment from Nicole and Will Latham. They performed the song 'Wonderful' which is dedicated to breastmilk donors everywhere and is the soundtrack to the new milk banking video.

New User Protocol Launched in the North West

The Managers of the two Milk Banks in the North West have worked together and developed guidelines for Neonatal Units to access and use Pasteurised Donor Breast Milk. Wirral Mothers Milk Bank and the Cheshire and North Wales Milk Banks provide Donor Milk to hospital trusts across Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire and Wales and locations further afield if requested. Cheshire and Mersey Neonatal Network has welcomed the new document and supported its launch at a recent best practice day in Warrington. Gillian Weaver, Chair of UKAMB spoke at the meeting about the need for Milk Bank services in the UK to become regional, liaising with other Neonatal Networks to improve access to Donor Milk for all Neonatal Units.
She congratulated Lynda Coulter and Annie Atkinson on their initiative in promoting milk banking in the North West. Lynda and Annie can be contacted by emailing Lynda.coulter@coch.nhs.uk or Anne.Atkinson@whnt.nhs.uk
Pictured are Gillian Weaver, centre, Annie Atkinson, right, and Lynda Coulter, left, with the newly launched document.

Sue Balmer (past President of UKAMB) and Carolyn Westcott (Vice-chair UKAMB ) joined colleagues from Huddersfield and Chester Milk Banks for the celebration.

The Wirral Milk Bank is the culmination of over a year’s enthusiastic fundraising by local people, especially the families of babies who had been cared for in the Neonatal Unit.

Olympic cycling Gold medallist Chris Boardman performed the opening ceremony, assisted by his wife Sally and Sonny, the youngest of their children. A firm believer in preventative medicine, Chris and family were coming full circle: they launched the fundraising campaign for the Milk Bank at the end of 2002.

Based on the Clatterbridge site of Wirral Hospital NHS Trust, the WMMB will supply donor breastmilk to the Trust’s Neonatal Unit, which cares for around 360 babies every year.

The £80,000 unit, with office and clean room is the culmination of years of planning by Annie Atkinson, the Neonatal Feeding advisor at the trust. Together with her colleague Gill Brady, she is now recruiting donors from the many enquiries already received from local mothers.

Annie and her team would like to thank other UK Milk Banks (particularly Northern Ireland, Birmingham and Huddersfield) for their support. She added, “As well as supplying donor EBM to the Wirral over recent years, we have gained knowledge of their experience, which has helped us anticipate some of the challenges of setting up a new Milk Bank. Thanks also to Gillian Weaver and Sue Balmer of UKAMB for their support and encouragement.

“We are delighted to be the 16th Milk Bank in the UK !”

The opening also provided an opportunity for a reunion with cousins Geraldine and Nina Staniford and their babies. Nina was already one of the first WMMB donors when Geraldine gave birth prematurely to her own son Callum, who benefited from donor milk for a few days until Geraldine could feed him herself. The cousins are still amused by the idea that the donor milk given to Callum could have been Nina’s!

To contact the Wirral Mothers’ Milk Bank, ring 0151 334 4000 ext. 5000 (24 hour voicemail) or e-mail Annie Atkinson anne.atkinson@whnt.nhs.uk.

[L to R] Gill Brady, Annie Atkinson, Chris Boardman with his son Sonny, Sally Boardman.	[L to R] Annie Atkinson holding Callum, his mum Geraldine Staniford, her cousin Nina Staniford and Gill Brady with Nina’s son Jaspar.