OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — It is hard enough to see your child fighting any condition or illness. For first-time parents Torie and Justin Nathan, of Geneva, their journey started four months ago.
"He came early for us, he came April 9, at 31 weeks, he was expected to be here on June 6," Torie Nathan said.
Born on a visit to Omaha, the next surprise, baby Jagger was diagnosed with congenital heart disease.
Being two hours from home, Torie wasn't sure how she would store her milk now that she couldn't directly breastfeed her son after getting special care in the hospital.
"I was not aware that they had centers, nutrition centers to help store your milk," Nathan said.
The Nutrition Center brings a little sense of ease and focuses on getting nutrition to patients safely. Milk and formula are prepared, stored and labeled in a sanitary room.
"It goes through the whole process from mom labeling it. It comes to our nutrition center. We scan everything in during preparation. It goes back out to the bedside and then the nurse will scan it again to make sure that this is the right milk, for the right baby, the right order, nothing's expired," Tammi Martin, supervisor of the Nutrition Center and lactation services at Children's, said.
For the past four months now, Jagger has been in the Cardiac Care Unit at Children's, but having these resources; Torie, her husband and the bedside nurses can focus solely on him getting better.
"It brings us so much ease again. Knowing that our bedside nurses can focus on Jagger and we have an actual nutrition center to focus on breast milk and getting it to my child because that is a huge part of him getting healthy too," Torie said.
Before this Center, nurses had to prepare feedings bedside.
"When you have a central milk prep room like we have. That takes that responsibility off that nurse and so our techs are the ones that are doing it, bringing it to the nurses," Martin said.
For the Nathan family, that means Jagger is getting all the attention he needs and they will continue taking it day by day.
"It is very much an emotional roller coaster. But when you come here though, you have so much support," Nathan said.
This is the only facility of its kind in the area, with the closest being in Kansas City.
Download our apps today for all of our latest coverage.
Get the latest news and weather delivered straight to your inbox.
