Texas Children's Global Health Fundación Baylor Argentina

Before this world was marked by the pandemic, Virginia Cabrera decided to become a donor of breast milk. Something she had heard and read on social networks solidified the idea for her. At that time, her young son Ramiro was barely weeks old. With the decision made, she began to figure out how to donate breast milk but the coronavirus loomed and stopped everyone's life (and her idea of donating breast milk) for many months.

In the middle of the pandemic and with her little baby at home, the idea was paused. Virginia and Nicolás, Ramiro's parents, decided that their little baby would not use disposable diapers and opted for cloth ones. "We decided to do our part taking care of the planet and not generating more plastic. In addition, the cloth diapers are advanced today, they come with drawstrings, everything, "says Virginia taking the opportunity to encourage thoughtfulness about the environment.

It was there, in search of those cloth diapers, that she met a woman who sold them. "I noticed that she had twins and, obviously, we started chatting. She told me that her two children were hospitalized and that it cost her a lot. She also explained to me that the two of them had received breast milk from the bank and how important it was," Virginia says.

Fate guided the compass after that encounter but it wasn't instantaneous. Soon, Virginia and Nico learned that Malú would be arriving soon. "It was just last year, around this same time, for Breastfeeding Week, that she the woman who sold the cloth diapers posted on her networks the importance of donating breast milk. I decided then that this it was the opportunity. When Malú was born two months ago, once she was fed and I saw that I had milk left over, I started to collect it,” says Virginia.

She began to find out what the process was like and after contacting the Milk Bank, she met with the staff of the Fundación Baylor Argentina, who sought to make it as simple and practical as possible for Virginia. "I have to say that the staff were super attentive, they gave me all the information and very quickly we delivered the first three bottles of milk. Small, but important," she recounts as her last words seem to be an idyllic summary of her donation and the selfless love that hides behind her action. "They are geniuses, they even came to get the milk at home because you can imagine that with the two boys it is not easy. My husband goes to work and when I finish changing one, I have to start changing the other," she jokes about the daily life with Ramiro about to turn 2 and Malú 2 months. And then, she clarifies almost as a warning: "My idea is to continue donating while I can."

Virginia is 35 years old and a teacher. Her life is linked to Añelo from the first days. Her parents came to the town in the early 1970s to work with a well known family. Her husband began to analyze that the city that was beginning to move to the rhythm of oil. He observed that a little bar was needed, a place to eat something and continue. And he opened it. "A little place with a bar and food and that's it," he says.

But it didn't stop there for that pioneer. He began to notice that lodging was necessary, a place to spend the night, because at that time there was nothing. "A company gave him the money to do it, which he paid back with interest. And that's how he built the first lodging in Añelo," adds Virginia.

She has great memories of those old days in Añelo, when she closes her eyes and seems to observe, as a recent record, those Christmases when she was a girl and the whole town gathered in the street in a joint celebration. "We were 30 people," she recalls.

When she finished high school, Virginia studied to be a teacher in Neuquén and, in between, she returned to Añelo to have her first daughter: Morena, who is now 13 years old. In 2015 she met Nico, they got married and had Ramiro and Malú. He has a position at the aguada San Roque school, but is on leave. Today, in addition to being a mother who donates breast milk, she breastfeeds her two little ones at the same time. "They take in tandem," she jokes.

The Neuquén Human Milk Bank was inaugurated in June 2016 and is the first in Patagonia. It operates in the Complexity VI hospital of Cutral Co-Plaza Huincul and is a specialized center, recipient of milk from donor mothers and have the mission of ensuring the feeding with pasteurized human milk of children born or admitted to care institutions. Since its inception, it has collected more than 2,000 liters of human milk from more than 1,400 donor mothers.

The Foundation collaborates with donations and the proper transportation of this donated milk. In this process, we are especially attentive to help the donor mother who need it. The requirements are explained, information is provided, the visit to a doctor is managed to perform the blood tests of rigor and, if the patient accepts, we contact the provincial Breast Milk Bank. We are aware and attentive to the whole process to be able to solve any inconvenience. The Fundación Baylor Argentina supports the Añelo Hospital to be accredited to the Ministry of Health of Neuquén as a friendly breastfeeding center.

In this case, we want to especially thank Sandra Weder and Alejandro Ballerio from the Bouquet Roldán Hospital, the nutritionist Astrid Henoch from the Breast Milk Bank, the Plottier and Cutral Co hospitals and the entire team that works to make breast milk donation possible. And, mainly, we want to thank, value and amplify Virginia and her selfless love.