Bartlett Regional | House Calls | Fall 2019

8 House Calls Fall 2019 Baby Parent Time is banana time for Amelia Zeitler! Sara Gress, Bartlett Beginnings Lactation and Education Coordinator Amelia Zeitler makes a new friend at Baby Parent Time. bedside. The new trio also returned to the hospital for a consultation on breastfeeding. “We’re reaching out to families fairly soon after they’ve gone home to find out how breastfeeding’s going, how mom is feeling, is she getting support at home,” says Sara. The breastfeeding support is the start of a continuum of education and support for young families. The goal, says Sara, is to help families be resilient. “Any of the stuff that you bring into it, any of your old baggage or old trauma, be it tiny or big, comes with you and is just amplified in trying to deal with babies. Babies are an opportunity for new beginnings. It’s not just babies that are born in this process. It is also the birth of mothers, the birth of fathers, the birth of families. That opportunity for Bartlett Beginnings Did you know Bartlett Beginnings has been offering pasteurized human donor milk (PHDM) since early 2017? Most hospitals that have PHDM reserve its use for babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, where its benefits have been shown to greatly improve outcomes. “We are proud to offer donor milk as an available option for our families when supplementation is needed,” says Lauren Beason, BSN, RNC-OB. transformation is part of what I hope gets introduced in some of the prenatal classes and woven in the baby and toddler groups.” Emily and Joe are from New York and Iowa, respectively, and met in Juneau. Joe works at Greens Creek and Emily is a stay-at-home mom. They have no family in town. Over the past year, families they met in Baby Parent Time class became part of a strong support network. Emily says the class gives her a “mental break” and “a community of people to support me. I met a bunch of other moms that were in the same age range, and we all exchanged numbers and hang out on the other days and swap child care.” They also swap outgrown clothes and toys. Years from now, they may be swapping stories of their young adults. Sara, who facilitates Baby Parent Time, says: “This is what gets me excited, and when I know it’s all working! The community and connections built here become the support that every family deserves to have.” —Continued from page 7 “So much of it is being able to connect with them on less of a clinical level and more of a ‘Hey, this is how we get to survive this together’ level.” —Lauren Beason, BSN, RNC-OB Alexandra Brown and her baby, Aiyana Lauren Beason, BSN, RNC-OB, Obstetrics Director