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NewsCut
Cody Nelson

After stillbirth, Minnesota mother donates milk to help grieve

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Megan Bah got some of the worst news a parent could get last month: Her baby Eleanor's heart had stopped beating, as Willmar's West Central Tribune writes.

Doctors induced labor soon after. Bah, 24, told the story of her daughter's birth in a Facebook post:

"We are heartbroken and happy to announce the birth of our sweet Eleanor June Bah ... Our beautiful baby came into this world surrounded by loving family. At this time, we were able to see that she had a true knot in her cord that was pulled tighter causing blood and oxygen circulation to be cut off.

There was nothing that could have prevented this horrible tragedy. Her body was put together perfectly. She was 6 pounds, 11 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She had soft, thick, beautiful hair like the both of us and big feet like her mama and big sister."

After the funeral, Bah decided she would save her breast milk and find a new mother who could use it. As the Tribune writes, it helped Bah grieve, and it gave her something to do.

Bah used Facebook to help her find an east side St. Paul mother of twins who wasn't producing enough milk. Bah, who lives in Hutchinson, Minn., had saved 900 ounces of her milk and has another 800 ounces to give, according to the Tribune.

Bah told the Tribune that donating her milk was a way to "honor Ellie and to make us feel better knowing that we were helping someone else."

There are more than 24,000 stillbirths in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2017, 27 milk banks distributed almost 6 million ounces of donated milk, according to The Conversation.