MOUNT VERNON — August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month, and to kick off the annual recognition, the Breastfeeding Network of Knox County is participating in the Global Big Latch On.
This year’s local event will take place on Friday, Aug. 23, from 10 a.m. to noon at Knox Public Health. It is open to all local mothers and their breastfeeding children, as well as those who have participated in breastfeeding.
Friends and family members are also invited to attend.
The Global Big Latch On is a worldwide community event where people gather to breastfeed and offer peer support to each other.
This celebration promotes and supports breastfeeding at a designated “latch” time, with the participation of friends, family, and the community.
The event aims to celebrate breastfeeding families and promote breastfeeding as a normal part of everyday life at the local community level.
Originally known as the Big Latch On, the event started in New Zealand in 2005 and came to the United States in 2010.
Now an international event, the Global Big Latch On involves nearly 60,000 women and children in 28 countries and almost 800 locations.
This year, Knox County is celebrating more than 10 years of participating in the event.
At the same time, WIC will be having a grand reopening of their OhioHealth Mothers’ Milk Bank Drop Site. Knox Public Health will house a freezer to store donated human milk, which will then be transferred to the milk bank in Columbus at no cost to the donor.
The freezer was purchased with funding from Women United, a program of United Way of Knox County.
The OhioHealth Mothers’ Milk Bank, under the guidelines of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA), provides pasteurized human milk to infants whose mothers are unable to provide milk to nourish their babies.
The donated milk is distributed throughout North America to babies in need.
“We are very excited about the re-opening of the Knox County WIC Milk Drop,” said Heidi Myers, a certified lactation counselor who spearheaded the project for the Women, Infants & Children (WIC) program at Knox Public Health.
“The drop site will enable us to provide a safe and trouble-free way for nursing mothers to share their milk with medically fragile infants and children.”
The milk bank, located in the OhioHealth Eastside Health Center in Columbus, relies on donations from healthy, lactating women who generously provide milk to help other babies.
Interested donors are encouraged to email milkbank@ohiohealth.com or call 614-566-0630 to arrange a screening phone interview before the event.
To become a human milk donor, mothers must take part in a screening process to ensure the quality and safety of the milk.
This process includes a phone screening to verify eligibility, completion of a medical and lifestyle history review, a signed medical release from the donor and physician, and consent to receive a blood test to screen for HIV, HTLV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and syphilis.
The donated milk is pasteurized, frozen, and distributed by physician prescription.
Approved mothers who want to drop off milk at the WIC location are instructed to call the Knox County WIC clinic to schedule a drop-off time.
To learn more about the mission and accomplishments of Big Latch On, visit biglatchon.org
More information about the OhioHealth Mothers’ Milk Bank, including a video, may be found at https://www.ohiohealth.com/locations/womens-health/mothers-milk-bank/
For more information about Breastfeeding and Ohio WIC visit odh.ohio.gov or Knox Health.com.
To stay up to date on public health topics follow WIC or Knox Public Health on Facebook, Instagram, or X.