Milk Donation

Since we struggled so much with breast feeding in the beginning, I had to do a lot of pumping. Over that time I accumulated an entire chest freezer filled with over 1000oz of pumped breast milk. Anyone who has done any pumping knows just how much time and effort went into that... I was really crushed when we realized around 7-8 months that Josh had allergies and I would likely not be able to use the milk I had been saving. I was very busy with school, and hoping in the back of my head that Josh didn't have allergies, so I didn't try to get rid of the milk right away. Once his birthday was approaching I realized that some of the milk was getting close to one year (the latest you are supposed to keep the milk) and I needed to figure out what to do with it.

I first tried to contact some of the "official" donation websites, but since I had been taking pre-natal vitamins I did not qualify to donate milk (seriously!?!). It turns out because the milk at milk banks goes to very very premature babies they can't have any additional vitamins in the milk. I turned to a breastfeeding Mom's group that I am in on Facebook and asked for suggestions. A friend sent my contact information to a woman looking for donor milk for her son. This woman's son was born at 27 weeks and she was trying to finish his first year still on breast milk (her son was born a few weeks later than Josh). She and her family relocated to DC temporarily after her husband was injured in Afghanistan so that he could be treated at Navy Med.

I ended up having pretty much exactly as much milk as they needed while they were in the DC area, and a cooler full to take home with them. I wish I had taken a picture of my freezer filled to the brim with milk, but I'm sure that a photo couldn't really capture how much effort went into it. It felt really good to be giving my milk to someone who really needed it, and helping out a family that has already given so much.

(Stolen from Hana)