Award-winning maternal health advocate and IRTH founder Kimberly Seals Allers, in collaboration with the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) announced the founding of The Restoration Project (TRP), a first-of-its-kind program aimed at ensuring that infants who lose their mothers due to causes related to childbirth continue to receive the essential nutrition of human milk.
Seals Allers, the founder of The Restoration Project and the Irth app, told Black News, “When an infant tragically loses their mother, the very least we can do is ensure they receive mother’s milk—the most powerful nourishment for their growth and immune system. We’re stepping into the gap–creating the first national infant feeding safety net for infants facing maternal loss.”
HMBANA is a nonprofit organization that establishes high-quality and safety standards for charitable milk banks in the United States and Canada. Its purpose is to increase baby health and survival by providing access to safe, pasteurized donor milk, particularly for the most vulnerable babies.
RELATED STORIES
Fifteen HMBANA charity milk banks have committed to becoming TRP partners, committing to two robust guidelines.
First, a fast response system that ensures TRP partner milk banks will give newborns donor milk for at least seven days right away following a reported maternal death.
Then, the first-ever nationwide milk donation network that allows eligible donors to donate excess milk to a milk bank that participates in TRP from any location in the United States. Each ounce donated is tracked and either processed and kept for later use or, in the event of an urgent need, transported straight to the affected family (with some limitations).
This ounce-for-ounce pledge frees local communities from the burden of raising milk on their own and ensures a national safety net.
“No infant should face both the loss of their mother and the loss of the critical nutrition that human milk provides. The Restoration Project ensures that families navigating this devastating reality have access to the donor milk their babies need,” said Lindsay Groff, Executive Director of HMBANA.
“By leveraging the strength of HMBANA’s nonprofit milk banks, we are creating a coordinated, compassionate response to maternal loss, because every baby deserves the best possible start,” Groff added.
The innovative campaign was introduced during the 14th annual Black Breastfeeding Week (August 25-31), highlighting the critical need to reduce maternal mortality inequalities. In the United States, black moms are three to four times more likely to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth difficulties. Newborns who experience these losses are frequently left vulnerable, both emotionally and nutritionally.
“For the first time, someone in Chicago can donate milk that directly supports an impacted baby in New York,” Allers remarked. “That’s the power of this coordinated national system—and it lifts the burden from any single community.”
TRP gives priority to granting access to donor milk to the following groups of people: Medicaid-eligible or low-income families; families in counties with high maternal mortality rates; infants whose mothers passed away due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth; and infants who were preterm, low birthweight, or admitted to the NICU as a result of maternal loss.
Seals Allers is an award-winning journalist, author of five books, international speaker, strategist and advocate for maternal and infant health. A divorced mother of two, she is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and New York University.
Her early days of motherhood and her own personal struggles with breastfeeding moved her to pursue her passion.
“In fact, it was my birth experience and early days of motherhood that inspired me to take on this journey,” she explains on her website. “At the hospital, I felt disrespected and voiceless, weeks later I struggled to find support when all I wanted to do was give my baby the most nutritious first food possible.
“If that wasn’t enough, I suffered with post-partum depression. Like far too many women, I found myself lost in the gaping hole between the idyllic images of motherhood and breastfeeding and my own personal experience. I felt isolated and alone and vowed to make sure fewer women have to suffer the same fate.”
The mompreneur’s website states that she was recognized by Women’s eNews as one of the 2018 “21 Leaders for the 21st Century” for her efforts in media advocacy. She published her fifth book, The Big Let Down—How Medicine, Big Business, and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding, in January 2017 through St. Martin’s Press.
