Milk Donor #10062

I know this may sound weird to say, but today was a bitter sweet day as I donated 735.5 ounces of breast milk to the Mother's Milk Bank.  Yes, I said it right...seven hundred and thirty five point five ounces of breast milk!!!!  And we have plenty more left over in our deep freezer.  There are only 12 Milk Banks in the country to help support those critically ill preemie babies in the countries NICUs and thankfully we were able to support a milk bank right here in the Bay Area.  Our journey to milk donation was easy, as both Mason and I work at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and we see first hand the difficulties premature babies have later in life.  We felt this was one of the small ways we could help others since we were blessed to have a healthy child.

I have a "small" attachment to my milk, as my friend Carrie would roll her eyes as I say that!  As of this morning we had about 2,800 ounces of breast milk stored up in a deep freezer, our regular freezer and my mother-in-laws freezer.  You may ask, how the heck do we have so much milk stored up and still have milk for Hadley?!  Some women have problems not being able to make enough milk, however I had a "little" hyperlacation problem.  Some may not call it a problem, but I have you know that 3 rounds of mastitis, 4 rounds of antibiotics, 2 trips to urgent care for chills, fever, bleeding nipples and pain was a big problem.  I was making enough milk for twins!

While my mom was in town visiting Hadley, we spent our bonding time at the lactation consultants office learning how to decrease (yes decrease) my milk supply.  This consisted of eating fresh sage (YUCK!), taking sudafed to help dry me up, and some combination of single pumping and changing settings.  Yet we still had too much milk.

Many people dont know much about milk donation and probably think its a very strange thing to do or for mother's to accept some strangers breast milk.  Think about blood donation...it's practically the same thing.  In order for me to donate milk, I had to "pass" an initial interview over the phone, fill out an 11 page application, get my OB to fill out a release form, Hadley's pediatrician had to fill out a form and I had to blood work completed.  It was practically the same questions I feel like when you donate blood: Have you been to Africa between 1987-199?, Have you had sex for money?, Do you have any piercings?, Do you have STDS?  All those strange questions and many more about our breast milk routine.

Below is before and after picture of our deep freezer!  As you can see the first one is practically overflowing and the second is after 19 gallon size bags are gone!  Mason was a big help in this also as he counted each bag, helped me label them and also moop and whine while I pumped each.and.every.time.  More to come on my exclusive breast milk journey.  Phew!