The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking - Softcover

Williams, September; SAN JOSE, MOTHERS MILK BANK

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0692179100 ISBN 13: 9780692179109

Publisher: Cove International Publishers, 2018

Synopsis

From bioethicist September Williams, MD, the author of 'Chasing Mercury,’ with Mothers’ Milk Bank, San Jose, comes The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking. Seriously humorous, informative and timely, The Elephant… makes bioethics look sexy. The year 2018 will be remembered as pivotal in modern history. This year, a first mother-model (in more ways than one ) helped empower all families by breastfeeding her baby at work—on a runway during Fashion Week. How did we come to this point where breastfeeding is sensational? In Dr. Williams' hands, bioethics, some heady science, and public health are broken into bite sized bits ingestible by ‘everybody and their mothers. She looks at worries about access to breastfeeding and breast milk equity. We are forced to consider why every infant can’t receive breast milk when we know breastfeeding improves the health outcomes for mothers and babies--even in communities most plagued by chronic illnesses.“Should we let babies starve?” The Elephant asks. It is a not so ‘tongue in cheek’ example of a simplified moral question. The book wades through the pain of disproportionate infant mortality by race and maternal morbidity. Evidence is given for why mothers in communities most attacked by high infant mortality and premature births might benefit from mind-body skill strengthening. The ethical traps inherent in dependance on bio-technology and neonatal intensive care units reacting to prematurity--without equal focus on diminishing root causes of the problem--are underlined. The daily morning restocking of breast milk bank freezers, emptied by night to feed frail babies, is a miracle facilitated by donations from womens’ bodies and hearts. The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking trumpets a song that can be easily heard by a wide range of people—women and men, health care professionals, owners of restaurants, bookstores, movie theaters, and the average persons on the street. The clarion call? “More breast milk, please.” Not for profit Mothers’ Milk Bank, San Jose provides over 1/2 million ounces of milk to babies in need annually. They easily require twice as many donations to adequately meet growing projections. That growth is related to multiple factors both technical, societal and medically based. Short term inability for mothers to nurse their newborns are often expanded by geopolitical and social ambivalence for the needs of families and babies. This book reflects the MMB-SJ “call to arms,” directed at those who hold babies and life dear. Proceeds from The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking are being donated to Mothers’ Milk Bank San Jose.

About this title

About the Author

September Williams is an American physician-writer, bioethicist and filmmaker. All of her work seeks a better understanding of and between ourselves. She focuses on promoting resilience for people who are ill, aging, dying, or stressed by environmental and humanitarian violation. Yet, her writing is fired by the humor which allows people and characters to make it through hard times. Her first novel, and the first in a series of three books, is Chasing Mercury, a romance-suspense-memoir about families committed to human and environmental rights. September's nonfiction writing covers health disparities, bioethics and film. She is a member of the National Writers Union (AFLCIO/UAW 1981), an affiliate of the International Federation of Journalists, and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. Though raised in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, September is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg Collegiate Division and has a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from the University of Manitoba, Canada. She attended Creighton University School of Medicine, and completed internal medicine residency at Cook County Hospital, Chicago. A tribute to her vanguard nature, September holds three fellowships which did not exist the day she started medical school. She was an ASPEN (American Society of Enteral and Parental Nutrition) Clinical Fellow in surgical hyperalimentation at Chicago Medical School; a Lowell T. Coggleshall Fellow at the University of Chicago MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics; and an American College of Geriatric Medicine / HRSA Clinical Geriatrics Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. A significant concentration of Dr. Williams' clinical work has been in acute care, emergency medicine and palliative care. Public medical facilities have been her primary venues of practice in Chicago, Boston, New Mexico, Mazimbu - Morogoro Tanzania, and San Francisco. While at the University of Chicago, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, September was particularly encouraged to continue writing by the late philosopher and author, Stephen Toulmin. With him, she explored how universal stories influence peoples' expectations of medicine and science, autonomy and justice-particularly when adapted to screen. Dr. Williams subsequently learnt her film craft in the screenwriting and directing MFA program at Columbia College, Chicago and at Boston University, while also working in an inner city trauma center. She was a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute Fellow in Black Film, at the Zora Neal Hurston Center for the Documentary. Dr. Williams is a co-editor, author, and reviewer of books, articles and films related to medical and bioethical issues. Over twenty-five years, Dr. Williams has provided more than a thousand lectures and consultations in clinical and organizational bioethics. Beyond her hospital based service and teaching, some of this work has been for the Centers for Disease Control, the National Center for Bioethics at Tuskegee University, Harvard AIDS Institute, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center for Practical Bioethics, the American Academy of Pain Management, and the McGann Women & Health Lecture Series at Stanford University. Dr. Williams retired early from the San Francisco City and County's Laguna Honda Hospital-God's Hotel. September has two millennial adult children and lives in Marin County, California, where she dances, open water rows the San Francisco Bay, and writes.

The Mothers' Milk Bank of San Jose, operating since 1974, is a charter member of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA) whose protocols for processing and distributing donated breast milk remain the operational gold standard for milk banking organizations. In 2017, The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) stated in their report Donor Human Milk for the High-Risk Infant: Preparation, Safety, and Usage Options in the United States that (HMBANA) donor milk banks represent a safe and effective approach to obtaining, pasteurizing, and dispensing human milk for use in NICUs and other settings. Along with the executive director, Pauline Sakamoto RN, MPH, PHN, the board of the non-profit Mothers' Milk Bank based in San Jose, California, is comprised of many of distin- guished clinicians, scholars and authors in neonatology, developmental medicine, public health, and lactation advo- cacy. Among those, Professor Ronald Cohen, MD, Kerin Torpey Bashaw, MPH, RN; Susan Crowe, MD; and Karen Miyamoto, RN, MPH. Essential is the expertise of Crystal Ciancutti, BS, MBA in marketing. These professionals and others are supported with that which represents among the savviest operations, management, donor recruitment team in the arena of breast milk banking. Milk banks, when affiliated with the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), are safe, certified, and have a legacy of meeting the needs of the most vulnerable, addressing the issues of equity and social justice for women, babies, and families under or at the poverty line. Mothers' Milk Bank San Jose distributed over 551,000 ounces of donor breast milk in 2017 to 114 hospitals, to Washington state, Arizona, Idaho, Connecticut, and Maryland.

Eric P. Carlson is an editor, software designer, phoneticist, and historian who has traveled around the world studying and writing about the history of punctuation. He is an expert in book design, interior layout appropriate use of fonts, and style to enhance book quality.

Review

Readers Praise September Williams's Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Issues in Human Milk Banking* "The first fashion model just hit the runway with a baby at her breast. Life is funny that way. In a warmly rendered book, very soundly based on research and facts, we are introduced to a topic that may have eluded many - with the high birth rate and the need for mothers to be employed there is a physical gap between knowing that breast milk is far superior in nutrition and other aspects than milk form the market and finding a way to supply breast milk for all infants." --Grady Harp

"A call for ideas and support to improving contributions in the Human Milk Banking Environment --In a well-written, backed by data, in-depth study on the undertakings in the Human Milk Banking environment, author Dr. September Williams espouses on the challenges faced by non- profit organizations toward the provision of human milk to needy infants." -- EA " Expand Your Horizons--The book deserves your free time. I advise everyone, especially for moms. Although it seems to me that it will be interesting for everyone to read because this book is not for a certain circle of people. Regardless who you are and where you live, whether you have children, buy it and you will not regret." -- JZ

"A fascinating look at a very specific and troubling issue, this book is highly recommended to raise awareness about the need for human milk and milk banks." -- VE

" I loved learning the history of human milk banking. The book explains the history and importance of human milk banking, going into detail as to why it is needed and how much milk is needed or infants around the world...Breast milk is an amazing thing and I love how this book explains exactly how amazing." -- SK

"The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking drew my attention after a young mother I know encouraged other women to take part in social media. I immediately wondered about the process and how it is regulated. I commend September Williams and the Mothers Milk Bank San Jose for putting this subject out in the open and informing the public about the issues they face when the milk banks are empty." --PB

The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Issues in Human Milk Banking "Wonderful! The Elephant in the Room: Bioethical Concerns in Human Milk Banking captured my attention and held it. Bioethics is a fascinating topic, but it's a little over my head, to put it lightly. However, author September Williams expertly breaks down the topic and makes it understandable. I had been interested outcomes from breast milk versus formula, and this book gives you everything you need to know about what's right and wrong from a bioethics perspective." -- H

"A Beautiful and informative book! I have learned a lot." --A

"The author has made a most interesting case... for a subject seldom entering the minds of the everyday citizen. Further, she has provided a highly detailed and quite all-encompassing discussion of the factors of importance in accomplishing this mission. And she has presented her material in a most readable form in spite of simultaneously fortifying her compelling arguments in a quite scholarly fashion bolstered with 176 supporting references." --John Manhold

*From Good Reads/Amazon and other reviewers

Edition details

• Publisher: Cove International Publishers
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0692179100
• ISBN 13: 9780692179109
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 132