A mother whose cancer diagnosis prevents her from providing enough breast milk for her adorable five-month-old daughter is getting a little help from a lot of friends.
Aimee Taylor works in health care, and like many in the know she feels a newborn should have an initial year?s worth of breast milk.
?I want to give her the best start I can,? Taylor said Sunday as she hugged her precious daughter Alexa at their Vancouver home. ?I always said I would breastfeed for a year.
?But I?m going in for chemotherapy soon, so in the next few days I?ll have to breastfeed her for the last time.
?That?ll be heartbreaking.?
Buddy Margo Tafts has started helping out. The two moms-to-be met in prenatal classes and shared the same midwife, and now Tafts is using social media to get the word out about Taylor?s need for milk.
?The response has been great so far,? Tafts said.
?I don?t know whether it?s the heart-wrenching story of a cancer diagnosis for a mother with a five-month-old, but people have really responded. The support has been really overwhelming.?
Tafts is one-quarter of the way to her goal of 5,880 ounces of breast milk to be frozen and used as needed until adorable, blue-eyed Alexa has reached her first birthday.
?This is really historic,? said Tafts, who initiated the milk drive by donating her ?stash? of frozen milk for her own daughter Pearl.
?People have used wet nurses for centuries.
?It was a total no-brainer for me ? our daughters were born 11 days apart.?
Taylor?s partner Evani Goll ? the couple have been married six years ? works at the B.C. Cancer Agency, but she?s having difficulty wrapping her head around the troubling news.
?I?m really happy about the milk drive. As for the rest of it, I?m in shock and denial,? Goll said.
?This is just the tip of it. I lost both of my parents to cancer.?
For Taylor, the joy of finally conceiving is being overshadowed by looming chemotherapy, which comes after she underwent emergency colon-cancer surgery.
?Alexa was a long time in the making,? said Taylor, weakened but still full of love for her daughter.
?Before, our biggest issues were not sleeping through the night, and teething. That just seems so small now.
?Thankfully, we?ve got amazing friends and family who have been really incredible.?
If you?d like to help out, email Tafts at margo@margossecrets.com.
iaustin@theprovince.com
twitter.com/ianaustin007
Source: http://feeds.canada.com/~r/canwest/F228/~3/uzvEcVXHzCY/story.html
howard johnson levon helm firelight world peace elbow kevin love think like a man world peace
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.