Laura Lehmann: Babies can go blind without breast milk
MANILA, Philippines — Prior to signing with GMA Artist Center as new Kapuso star, beauty queen Laura Lehmann shared the importance of setting up a milk bank in the Philippines.
In an interview with Philstar.com, Laura revealed that during Miss World 2017 Manushi Chhillar’s recent visit to the country, the latter told her that they will receive around US$ 10,000 each for winning the Miss World’s Beauty with a Purpose special award. The amount, according to Laura, will be donated to her proposed milk bank foundation.
It can be recalled that Laura landed on the Top 40 of Miss World for being among the five winners of Beauty with a Purpose, a challenge where contestants discuss their advocacies.
Laura is reportedly the first Philippine contender to win the Beauty with a Purpose award. Her advocacy is to set up a milk bank foundation to help indigent moms under the care of Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center in Manila to produce more breast milk that could help address malnutrition and other health issues among their babies.
According to her, the need for the foundation dawned on her during a visit to the medical center, when she learned that a baby born without complications has become blind and deaf because of a lack of milk and malnutrition.
Scientific studies show that breast milk can prevent retinopathy, an eye disease that can cause permanent blindness, among babies, especially among those born prematurely.
“We realized that it’s such an avoidable thing. If only somebody had given him milk, then he would never have gone blind, he would never have gone deaf,” shared the athlete and courtside reporter, who has just signed up as a GMA artist star on July 2.
If successful, the milk bank also aims to have the technology to sterilize milk from moms with human immunodeficiency virus.
“Some mothers have milk that has HIV and when you have it, you cannot give milk because it (the virus) can pass on to the baby,” Laura explained. “So, what the milk bank does is it gets the milk from the HIV mothers and screens it, so that it removes the virus and (is) good to be served to the baby.”
Laura said Manushi and the Miss World Organization pledged to return to the Philippines this year to help her set up the milk bank in Jose Reyes.
Also helping Laura set up the milk bank is Wetbrush Pro-Epic Professional, an American hairbrush brand said to be used by Hollywood A-list stylists like Dianelle Priano, who does the locks of the likes of Mariah Carey and the Victoria’s Secret Angels.
Inspired by Miss World’s Beauty with a Purpose credo, Wetbrush recently partnered with Miss World Philippines (MWP), headed by National Director Arnold Vegafria, to raise funds for MWP’s charities through the sales of the brand’s brushes at select salons nationwide.
“The good thing about the milk bank is that once you had it set up, it’s there forever,” Laura assured. “All you need is the milk donations from mothers with extra milk and store it in a freezer for up to a year, so it’s very sustainable.” — Video by Kat Leandicho
