Through education, advocacy and support, the Birth and Family Education and Support Services department promotes the optimal well being of families experiencing pregnancy, birth and parenting. Our services include: prenatal and postpartum education, support and education for health care professionals who care for families, a milk bank – helping to provide healthy nutrition for sick and preterm infants, psychosocial support services for mood disorders in pregnancy and postpartum pregnancy and newborn loss support.

Prenatal and Postpartum Education
Birth and Family Education provides prenatal classes for childbirth and parenting preparation, breastfeeding, cesarean birth preparation, refreshers and sibling preparation. These classes are offered at Fairview Ridges Education Center, Fairview Southdale Hospital and the University of Minnesota Medical Center Riverside campus.

Postpartum mom and baby groups are offered at all three Fairview metro hospital sites on a variety of days and times. These groups offer a great opportunity for women to connect with other mothers of newborns and share the joys and challenges presented by new parenting.

For more information about all our classes, call Fairview OnCall at 612/672-7272 or link to our online catalog.

Education materials online
Online versions are now available for The Expectant Family and The New Family. These publications can answer many of your prenatal and postpartum questions.

Pregnancy and Newborn Loss Services
The Pregnancy and Newborn Loss Services department provides skilled and compassionate grief support and resource information to bereaved parents, their families and the metro community. For more information, please call 612-672-7452 (PILC).

Available Services
Pregnancy & Newborn Loss Resources
Pregnancy & Newborn Loss Support Groups

Milk Bank
The University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital human milk bank is a partnership between the Birth and Family Education department and Prolacta Bioscience, Inc.™ Prolacta is a for-profit company in California that has developed new and innovative ways to process and engineer donated breast milk to provide healthy nutrition for sick and preterm infants and others with unique medical needs. For example, Prolacta is able to concentrate calories in breast milk in such a way that an infant who is failing to gain weight may receive milk that has 22 or 26 calories per ounce. They also produce a human milk-based fortifier, an essential ingredient in milk supplementation for many preterm infants.

Any healthy mother with a healthy baby is a candidate for milk donation. The potential donor mom moves through a process much like she would at a blood bank. A detailed medical history is taken, her blood is tested for various pathogens, and a genetic “fingerprint” is obtained for identification of her milk. In addition, she needs written permission to donate from both her care provider and her baby’s physician or NNP. Once she qualifies as a donor, she receives bottles and freezer storage equipment, as well as a breast pump if she needs one. Every two weeks she brings her milk into the hospital, where it is packed and shipped to California, and once processed, it is distributed to Newborn Intensive Care Units around the country.

Breast milk provides important nutrients to babies who need it most, including:
• preterm babies
• babies who can’t digest formula
• sick babies who are failing to grow
Donated milk will give these infants the protections they need to fight germs and stay healthy. For more information about the milk bank, call us at 612-672-4122 or email milkbank@fairview.org

Professional Education
Birth and Family Education offers professional education on a variety of topics, including breastfeeding for health care professionals and training for perinatal loss support and perinatal mood disorder diagnosis and treatment. For more information on our courses, please call 612-672-4119.

No one is ever turned away for inability to pay.  Fairview OnCall, 612-672-7272, can assist with financial resources if needed.