Jamie Thomas' brown hair is only slightly longer than the wispy strands on the head of her 4-month-old daughter, who is in her arms peacefully drinking a morning bottle of breast milk.
The chemotherapy to treat Thomas' aggressive breast cancer, which was diagnosed during pregnancy, stole her hair and her plans to nurse her baby.
Jamie Thomas, 38, of Costa Mesa feeds donated breast milk to her 4-month-old daughter. Thomas couldn't afford to buy from a milk bank, so a group of Orange County moms donate their excess supply.
CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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Breast pumps covered
The federal Affordable Care Act requires health plans to fully cover breast pumps as well as lactation support and counseling. A government website says, "Breastfeeding is one of the most effective preventive measures mothers can take to protect their health and that of their children. One of the barriers for breastfeeding is the cost of purchasing or renting breast pumps and nursing-related supplies."
Since the beginning of the year, breast-pump manufacturers have reported a surge in demand. Some health plans have decided to pay for the rental of pumps rather than their purchase.
Breast cancer and pregnancy
Developing breast cancer during pregnancy is rare. But more women are having children later in life, when the risk of breast cancer goes up. The estimated rate is from 1 in every 1,000 to 1 in every 10,000 pregnant women. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer found during pregnancy, while breastfeeding or within the first year after delivery.
Source: American Cancer Society
"Unfortunately, I was thrown a huge curveball that took that ability away from me," said Thomas, who lives in Costa Mesa. "Especially after she went through chemo with me in utero, it was especially important to me to fulfill this promise to her."
Thomas, 38, could not afford to purchase from a milk bank, which charges at least $3 an ounce, so she contacted a Texas-based mom blogger for help. Her plea went viral and within a day, a group of Orange County mothers offered to donate frozen bags of their surplus milk.
"These moms allow me to fulfill a promise to my daughter that cancer had taken away from me," Thomas said.
PREGNANT WITH CANCER
Thomas, an environmental planner, anticipated getting breast cancer someday. Her mother and grandmother were diagnosed in their late 50s.
"I didn't expect it until I was their age," she said.
About halfway through her pregnancy last summer, Thomas noticed a hard mass on her left breast but attributed it to hormonal changes. Then her arm swelled along with a spot on her neck. She went to the doctor for a biopsy of her breast and lymph node tissue.
At 22 weeks pregnant, Thomas was diagnosed with Stage 3 invasive ductal carcinoma.
"That first day was a big, huge freak-out for me," she said. "It's like one of those days where you remember where you were when the Challenger exploded."
Ten days later, she started chemotherapy.
Dr. Rupali Nabar, Thomas' Kaiser Permanente oncologist, said chemo is most dangerous during the first trimester, when a baby's organs are developing. Certain chemotherapy drugs, such as the one Thomas completed this month, aren't safe anytime during pregnancy.
"The trimester makes a big difference," Nabar said. "Her risk of having a complication with the baby or with the pregnancy goes down a little bit as you go along in the pregnancy. We were still very careful about how we managed her."
Thomas' hair fell out, but as her belly grew larger, her breast tumor shrunk. She shrugged off the curious stares and loud whispers when she went to chemotherapy wearing maternity clothes. She dealt with her anger over having to schedule a mastectomy soon after giving birth to her daughter.
She told her mother, "I guess she's going to be a formula baby."
But she and her husband, Bob, struggled to make peace with that.
"We were pretty adamant about wanting to breast-feed and not do formula because of all the health benefits," Bob Thomas said. "When we were initially looking at the cost, we would not have been able to provide for our child in that way if we were to pay what the milk banks charge."
Jamie Thomas experienced difficulty nursing the couple's son, Jack, now 21/2. But she pumped for a year to provide milk for him. She had hoped breast-feeding would be easier the second time around.
Thomas wasn't ready to give up.
Late one night in August, she was reading the blog Baby Rabies, which she started following while pregnant with Jack. She decided to contact the author, Jill Krause of Dallas.
"I am six and a half months pregnant and was diagnosed last month with some pretty serious breast cancer," Thomas wrote in an email. "I will be going through four rounds of chemo before the baby is born and will have a mastectomy within a month after she comes so between chemo and surgery and follow-up chemo and radiation, there is no way I will be nursing her."
She never expected a response.
GIFT FROM NEIGHBORS
But the next day, Krause blogged that while nursing her own daughter at 3 a.m., she read Thomas's email and a tear slid onto her smartphone. She put out a request to her readers on Thomas' behalf. Offers to ship milk came from around the country.
Erin Pence, 35, of Costa Mesa saw the post on Facebook. She shared it with her group, OC New Natural Moms.
"Within the first 15 minutes, I think I had five moms who said, 'I will absolutely do something,'" Pence said.
Throughout history, women have shared breast milk. Today, purchasing pasteurized breast milk requires a prescription. The Human Milk Banking Association of North America, an association for nonprofit banks, refers to Thomas' arrangement as "casual sharing."
"The intent behind casual sharing is wonderful ? it's a caring act of sisterhood," the group says on its website. "But we believe strongly that it's important to go the extra mile to have the surplus milk tested in a lab to make absolutely sure that it's safe for any baby."
Thomas said she knows not everyone will agree with her decision to accept milk from strangers.
"You have to take a leap of faith," Thomas said. "You have to assume they're not going to be putting their own child in jeopardy, so they won't be putting your child in jeopardy."
Before their daughter's birth, the Thomases set up a playpen in their bedroom and bought a deep freezer for their garage.
Pence organized a milk drive and came to meet Thomas before her due date.
The Thomases knew they were having a girl but disagreed about her name until the very end.
"I don't even get to play the cancer card on that one," she recalled telling her obstetrician.
They compromised by hyphenating their top choices. Amelia-Rae was born a few weeks early on Oct. 16. She weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces.
"When we heard her crying and everything was fine, that was very much a relief," Thomas said.
Her middle name is Faith.
"We kind of pulled that out as an acknowledgement of what we have been going through," Thomas said.
Nabar said the greatest concerns for the baby were growth deficits, organ damage or preterm labor from the stress of chemo. She was thrilled to meet Amelia-Rae at one of Thomas' appointments.
"When I was treating Jamie, I was thinking about two people as opposed to one," Nabar said. "When she came back with her little daughter safe and sound and as healthy as can be, I was pretty happy."
Less than a month after delivering, Thomas underwent a mastectomy and removal of 10 lymph nodes, a challenging recovery with a newborn.
"She's pretty mellow," Thomas said of her baby. "She's usually pretty smiley. I think God knew I could only take so much and didn't give me a colicky baby on top of everything else."
Pence said 15 to 20 mothers, including herself, have donated milk. She said she reminds donors to label the bags with any medication they are taking and reminds them of proper freezing guidelines. She said the milk is dated and also contains the age of the donor's own baby. That way Thomas can more closely match the milk to Amelia-Rae's age because milk properties change with a baby's development.
"Especially when she was brand new, we tried to make sure she was getting as much as she could from small babies," Pence said. "I plan on doing it as long as we have moms who are willing to donate. I think it would be great if we could keep donating through the first year."
Amelia-Rae drinks about 25 ounces a day. Thomas will complete her treatment by undergoing radiation. She hopes to meet all the mothers who have helped nourish her daughter.
"Hopefully when I'm feeling better and can be around bigger groups of people, we'll try to have a little thank you party."
Contact the writer: cperkes@ocregister.com 714-796-3686
Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/thomas-497599-milk-baby.html
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