Tennessee moms donate breast milk to help a new mom with breast cancer. When Erin Ackerman was 30 weeks pregnant, she found out that she had a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer and would need to deliver her baby early so she could start treatment. She’d been hoping to breastfeed her new baby, but the cancer made that impossible.
Erin shared her story on Nashville’s News Channel 5, including a plea for a milk donor. She knew it was a big ask, so she was shocked when several local moms volunteered to be screened and offered to provide her with a supply of breastmilk for her newborn. "I didn’t imagine that people could be so kind when it came to something like that because that’s asking a lot,” Erin says. “You’ve got to feed your baby too, and they went above and beyond and here they are feeding mine."
On November 22nd of last year, baby Willow Rose was born weighing 5 pounds 13 ounces. Baby and momma spent a couple of weeks in the hospital before getting to go home at the beginning of December. Thanks to the support of other moms across central Tennessee and a freezer full of donated milk, Baby Willow is now weighing in at just shy of 12 pounds. And Erin is making good progress fighting her cancer. She hopes to be cancer free before Willow’s first birthday.
Source: News Channel 5
Photo: Getty Images