Milk donation - correct etiquette?

[ceasar04]

Having being inspired by threads on MN about milk donation, I have recently made contact with a recipient mum and have been expressing milk for her prem baby.

I am really happy to do this but its costing me a fair bit in storage bags, just bought more today and have now spent £20ish on bags.

Haven't actually met up with her yet as she lives a fair distance away but do I ask her for contribution when we meet? I feel really tight asking but have just gone onto SMP and can't afford to keep paying for bags.

I am hoping she offers but not sure what to do...it seems totally against the spirit of donation!

Anyone other donors out there...what do you do?

That's a lovely thing to do ceasar .

I think it would be better to ask for her to buy the bags rather than cash, somehow it would look a bit cheeky if it was enough money for medela bags and then you handed over home bargains! If she just gets her own bags back filled with milk there's no room for misunderstanding. Although I don't think anyone would be mental enough to go through the hassle of regular expressing unless their motives were more altruistic than the profits to be made on milk storage bags .

Sorry cross posted, typing very slowly as one-handed with baby on lap!

Thanks v much!!

thats an idea PFNM. yes just ask when you hand over the milk if she could provide some bags for future milk :)

PFOS Yes I thought about asking her for bags or as misdee said containers to freeze...agree asking for cash feels very weird to me and as I said in OP very much against spirit of what I am doing.

Although the £6.10 profit from bags could have bought me some new hand cream?

(why am I now obsessed with hand cream?)

Love your username BTW!

Thank you! It was my response when someone asked me how I could be on a trampoline just a couple of weeks after having a 9lb4oz baby, had been trying to think of a decent username for ages and it just seemed to work!
If you're making around £6 for every 10 bags you'd only need to pump around 600000oz a year to make a living wage, I think you might have to stick to the cheap handcream for a while...

Just in case you hadn't realised, you don't donate directly to the hospital but through a milk bank (these can be some distance away from where you live) and they screen you, pasteurise the milk, provide storage bottles/pump etc etc. This may be why the hospital didn't know much about donations.

I donate through the Chester milk bank but live about 2 hours from there, and I know they collect from further away than me even.

The website for uk milk banks is here.

Of course if your arrangement works for you and the mother then there's no probs, but just wanted to put this info on here for anyone else who may be reading this thread.

Yes i too donated to chester but i live in leeds, miles away. They collect from as far away as hull. There is a bank closer to me but they weren't interested.

So if anyone is interested in donating please don't assume that just because your local hospital or even milk bank, are useless/uunsuitable that you won't be able to donate through ukamb (see tittybojangles link above).

Premie babies can die due to a lack of human milk (pasturised or otherwise).

That said not all milk is suitable for premies and i applaude anyone that finds alternative ways to give more babies more bm.

I wish I'd known about this human milk 4 human babies organisation! I threw away around 3 litres of expressed frozen milk as my DD won't take a bottle and the nearest milk bank is in Halifax - I'm in Bury, don't drive and had no way of getting the milk there still frozen as it takes over 2 hours on 2 busses at about £8 return fare.

To back up MoonFace it is definitely worth emailing round the various milk banks - their details are on the website someone mentioned above. I ended up donating my milk to a bank over 2 hours' drive away - they sent a motorcycle courier to collect it from my house. He arrived with a fluorescent jacket, a pannier with the words 'blood' on it, and emanating the sense that he was taking his responsibilities humungously seriously:) What is outrageous is that I had to make the effort to do the organising/emailing round myself, at a time when I had a baby critically ill in a hospital an hour's drive away, and the only solution the local milk bank could offer was to pour it all down the sink.

Now you've all galvanised me to email my local milk bank rep and tell her what's what:)

Thanks for extra info TittyB, I might still need to contact them as the Mum I am donating to does live as fair distance away although we are meeting at a point convenient to both of us and I'm not sure how well the milk will travel
Am going to pack it with ice bags etc and hoping it will be ok but if not i'll be contacting milk bank directly or might find another donor through HM4HB nearer to home.

Also thanks to everyone who has offered bags, have had a few PMs too, you are all v generous

Feeling the love today