Donating Breastmilk
I was so struck by a story in our newscast tonight I felt I needed to pass along more information to moms!
ABC reported an incredible story of a new mom from Pittsburgh who died suddenly. She had been passionate about making sure her preemie daughter, Isabella, had breastmilk to increase her odds of thriving. After her death, friends rallied around the family, and connected with the International Breast Milk Project, to provide baby Isabella with donated breast milk. Now the baby is well enough to go home with her grateful dad.
I looked up the website - IBMP mainly provides breastmilk to AIDS orphans in Africa. Yes - even if you’re here in Indiana, you can donate. They check out your medical history, have you do some testing, and will ship you coolers and even provide a pump if you need one.
If you are a nursing mom or know someone passionate about breastfeeding who might be 
interested, here’s the info. http://www.breastmilkproject.org/hiw_faq.php
And if you’ve ever donated and would like to share your experience , I’d love to hear from you!
Take care of yourself and thanks for reading -
Trisha
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Trisha,
Eric said I should respond here since I am such a passionate supporter of breastfeeding. Did you know there is a milk bank in Indiana? http://www.clarian.org/portal/IMMilkBank
The Indiana Mother’s Milk Bank is, I think, the first of its kind in Indiana and one of only ten in the country. What a great opportunity to make a difference for babies in need!
But for a couple of months here and there during pregnancy, I have been breastfeeding nearly constantly for more than 9 years. That’s more than three years for each of the first two boys and almost two (and still going strong) for the third. I pumped while working for each of them during their first year in daycare. I believe in the benefits wholeheartedly, even though we weren’t able entirely to avoid ear infections…
Glad to see you bringing attention to this issue!
I’m a milk donor! I was going to go through the local Indiana Milk Bank (at Clarian, I think). But when I inquired about it on IndyMoms.com, I was contacted by someone involved with La Leche League and ended up doing a private donation to a family who was bringing home newborn quints. Mom is very dedicated to providing breastmilk to her babies but knows she can’t do it alone. So LLL has been working to find private donors. I still had to meet all the same qualifications as if donating to the Milk Bank. I was able to donate 100 oz and I know other moms have been able to donate up to 1000 oz! It’s a great feeling to know that something as precious as breastmilk isn’t going to waste by just sitting in my freezer!
Wow, LizC! That’s amazing! I never had that much surplus as I was trying to just make sure the kids never got formula at daycare. How old is your baby? And in milk donation does it matter the age of the donor’s baby? I know milk changes as the baby ages to meet the baby’s nutritional needs, but I didn’t know if people care about those subtleties when seeking out donor milk.
Sometimes when the kids were really tiny, I would have these anxiety attacks in the middle of the night worrying that something would happen to me or that I would have to stop nursing for some reason. The very thought of it was heartbreaking to me. It is great that there are people and organizations out there that can help provide some help when the commitment to breastfeeding is there, but the milk or mother isn’t. The modern equivalent to wet nursing, I suppose…
For donating, I believe your baby has to be less than 1 year old. And I think they generally try to match age to age as best as possible. My first is 3 and my second is almost 6 months. My first weaned completely at 25 months (when I was pregnant). No idea how long my son will nurse!!
My goal is to pump today when my baby will consume at daycare tomorrow. So far, he hasn’t had to dip into any freezer stash! I haven’t built up the excess that I had before. He is hitting the growth spurts really hard lately!
Several years ago, I donated all the breast milk that I had pumped religiously five times a day for almost six months. My baby got to have only a few ounces through a tube. After she died, a nurse told me of a milk bank that would love to have it. As hard as it was to do, it was even harder to think about throwing it all away.
Something else that can be donated is cord blood after delivery. The last I knew, you could order a kit to have on hand at delivery for the doctor to collect the cord following a certain procedure.
Thanks for all the great contributions to this blog entry! I’m always glad to see people write in with their thoughts, and especially about such an important and personal issue as breastfeeding.
PM - I am so glad you were able to give someone else your gift in a time of loss. I can’t imagine going through what you did, but I can imagine how grateful the other family must have been to receive your donated milk. Thanks for taking time to write with your story.
Trish