A Donation

Tonight I did something that really made me happy and proud of myself. I donated almost 500 ounces of breastmilk to a milk bank.

Let me back and up give some history. Since coming back to work from having JJ I have continued nursing, like I did with Tessa. I plan to nurse him until he's 1. Well JJ is quite the nurser! He loves to nurse and the first month or so after I came back to work he didn't like to drink from a bottle very much when I was at work. He did take some from the bottle, but never as much as I produced. Then when I come home in the evening he liked to nurse as much as possible!

Creating this much demand means that my supply is pretty good. I freeze anywhere from 5-10 ounces of milk a day. That's a lot over 4 months! And we never use any of the frozen milk. So I keep freezing without ever using it.

In September I googled and researched milk banks. I found an organization - Human Milk Banking Association of America - and contacted them about becoming a donor.

First I did a 10 minute interview over the phone about my general health as a pre-screening to be a donor. Then they emailed me a more complete health questionnaire to fill out as well as papers that had to be signed off on from my doctor and JJ's doctor indicating that they saw no reason why I could not be a donor. The final step after the paperwork was complete was to have bloodwork done to make sure I didn't have any diseases. After I passed the bloodwork they told me they would be mailing me a cooler so I could overnight my milk to the milk bank.

Tuesday night the cooler came! I don't know what I was expecting, but it was a big rectangle cooler that you would take tailgating! I thought there was no way I could fill that thing up with milk. My instructions were to put my bags of milk in another bag they provided me and then stuff newspaper or packaging peanuts if necessary and schedule a pickup from Fedex in the late afternoon so the cooler could be sent overnight to the milkbank.

As soon as I got home from work tonight Jonny helped me get the milk ready. I kept track of how much was in each bag so I could count it up. Like I said, it was almost 500 ounces (483 to be exact).

I was shocked to realize that it took up almost the entire space of the cooler. Talk about a lot of milk!

I took some pictures of my freezer so you could get an idea of how much milk there was.

The milk is taking up all of the door of the freezer on the left and the bottom 2 shelves on the right side of the picture.

A close up of the bottom 2.

And there are some more containers of milk up here too! The bright orange is JJ's baby food - either sweet potatoes or carrots.

And a close up of the freezer door. I actually did not donate any of this milk though. I wanted to keep some for us, just in case but I plan on doing another donation if possible, and I think it will be.

This is what I have left.
One bag of milk. We put a bunch of my little bags in one big bag they provided.

And then the 2nd bag they provided to us.

And now here's my freezer, with a lot less milk! What are we going to do with all this room? Probably make more baby food!

Here's a link to the Human Milk Bank Association of North America's website that tells you about their method of processing the milk (sorry I don't feel like typing it all out here): http://www.hmbana.org/index/processing/

It is nice to know that I'm helping a baby out there that needs breastmilk and isn't able to get it. They list on their website that the common reasons for prescribing human milk include:
Prematurity
Allergies
Feeding/formula intolerance
Immunologic deficiencies
Post-operative nutrition
Infectious diseases
Inborn errors of metabolism

If anyone else nurses and pumps or knows anyone that does and has extra, please keep this in mind so maybe they can donate too one day!