Milkshare

[Milkshare]

www.milkshare.org.uk has finally gone live after months of preparation!

The aim of Milkshare is to promote safe breastmilk sharing in the UK and to raise awareness that formula is not the only option for mothers who are unable to breastfeed.

The Share Milk forum allows potential donors and recipients from all over the UK to connect and help each other.

Milkshare is supporting mothers to make a positive change and improve the health of babies one drop at a time.

If you?re thinking about becoming a breastmilk donor, please visit UKAMB to see if there are any milk banks close to you. If you live too far away to donate milk to a milk bank, private milk sharing is a wonderful way for you to help babies whose own mothers are unable to breastfeed.

Please come along and visit us, whether you are would like to donate or obtain breastmilk, or are just interested!

I hope you'll see this as constructive criticism...

On the website, the 'share' of milkshare at the top of the page is in blue and isn't very visible against the blue background. Maybe make it darker or something so it can be read easier??

Sorry to nit pick, good luck with the site.

Thanks for the feedback! I was wondering about that actually, will see what I can do. :)

What a great idea. I will look at the website, but how does private milk sharing get around the potential (no doubt tiny) risks. Banked milk is pasteurised, or something, isn't it?

I read that in Oz mothers are b/f each others' babies. Pretty cool I thought.

There's a lot of information on the site about potential risks and how to minimise them. Milkshare strongly advises that all donors produce proof of recent blood tests in addition to answering questions about their health and lifestyle. It is also possible to pasteurise milk at home!

I love it!

And have signed up!

I found the site easy to navigate and read.

I do have a few q's and suggestions though...Hope you don't mind

Re blood tests, might it be worth suggesting which tests are appropriate? and how to go about getting them?

I may have read it wrong but I thought that on the donor/recipient info pages it said to read all of the info on the page, but I couldn't find any more.

Re the age of baby thing, as this keeps changing might it be an idea to give date of birth instead(just month maybe incase people don't want to be revealed!).

DO matches make contact through a pm? It might be worth beiong clear about this. And will a pm go out as an email aswell? I might not check the site that often.

Also have youu asked ukamb to pass on your details to any one who isn't suitable for them?

Lastly there is another thread on here at the moment doing a similar thing but not very organised.

You come across as very proffesional.

Thanks for all the feedback!

Regarding blood tests, there should be a dropdown menu when you hover over the donor/recipient links taking you to more information, including lots of details about which tests are needed. What internet browser are you using? It works fine in all the browsers I've tested.

Date of birth rather than baby age is a good idea, thanks!

I'll make it clearer about making contact and see if I can set up email notification as well.

Ah ha, I see. I'll go have another go. I'm on a crap cheepo tiny net book majiga. It uses internet explorer but probably some old coal fired version.

Not had a look yet but it sounds like a great idea.

Twice I've tried to donate to UKAmb, with no success.

If we have a dc3, I'll be signing up to this.

Good luck.

Fab :) I shall sign up...

But you should probably know that there is a specific advertising section on here, and you may need to move your post. Just so you know.

No it's not happening for me. Though personally I can just about see it on my phone.

I think that this is a very good idea in principle. I pump and then pasteurise about 30oz of milk a day for my twins and after much hit and miss think I have it down to a fine art using a couple of different easy methods. If you think I could offer any help or tips on pasteurising breast milk I would be pleased to.

This isn't a business though, is it?

Was your logo purposefully made to look the same as that from the Channel 5 programmes?

milkshake.five.tv/

Ha ha! I thought it reminded me of something!

gaelic i don't think so...it says somewhere on the site that you can't charge for milk so unless they sell ad space i can't see how it can be a business. Also .org is for not for profit things though i don't know how this is policed.

Peasplease that is amazing! (the pumping for twins thing i mean...aswell as the milkshake thing, obv!)

Thanks for all the support and no it's definitely not a business, strictly non-profit!

MoonFaceMamaaaaargh, I really appreciate you taking the time to test it on your phone. For now I've made a workaround by adding the links on the main pages as well.

It wouldn't need to be in the advertising topic then would it? (SirBoobAlot mentioned it earlier).

I would have liked this option early on so that I could have topped up with EBM rather than formula.

I later looked into donating milk (as once established my supply was more than ample) but there was nowhere local to me that could bank it, so this looks like a great idea. Good luck with the project.

There's a lady looking for breastmilk near Sheffield if anyone there is interested in donation. :)