Milk donation! Every drop counts!!

[fastasleep]

I just had the lady from my nearest milk bank round for the first time, as I'm purely expressing for my DD it's very easy for me to donate breastmilk - in fact I'm massively over-producing and she took 10 litres of frozen milk back with her...

But did you know that one ounce is enough to feed a very premature baby for a whole 24 hours?!

There are ten milk banks in the UK, but you'd be amazed how far they'll travel to pick up milk... they will give you an electric pump and supply all your bottles etc, they don't mind if you make loads or a tiny bit, they have flexible pick up times to fit around your life...

I think it's sad that in the whole city of Liverpool they have three milk donors, me included... it's not that hard to do if your feeding is well established, they recommend pumping straight after a feed for a few minutes on each side, you can top up the bottle and leave it in the fridge until it's full and then freeze it, your baby won't get any less milk that way... the only down side to it is that it takes a bit of your time!

Please look into it if you're at all interested - here's a link with the addresses on, here's the donor information. (Again you'd be amazed how far they'll travel so don't be put off if the nearest one is quite far away)

Thanks for reading!

Just spoke to the milk bank in Huddersfield and she said your baby definitely needs to be under 6mths as once you have started weaning the quality & quantity of your milk changes, so it's not really suitable for premature babies.. I said that although ds was on solids, he really wasn't having much and I still BF loads but she said they have to stick to their guidelines.

It is such a shame though because she said they were desperate for donated milk and I would love to do it . So if anyone near Huddersfield wants to donate, they are desperate! And if anyone knows of another milk bank that would take mine even though ds is 7mths please let me know!

Aww I'm sorry Tatties! You tried though, that's what's important

Yay @ all the people finding my post useful!

And it was you alux sorry missed your post before, thanks again!

Huddersfield is also the closest bank to me. dd is 6.5 mos so I guess they will tell me the same. It's a shame tho as the milk bank link site said that the ebm benefits other babies in hospital with other illnesses too as it is more easily digestible than formula.

I will be looking into it, thanks for the link fastasleep. Took me ages to get the hang of expressing with DD but I suppose it'll be easier second time around. also never huge amounts but I am reassured by pidge...

I find it odd that they say you have to start before the baby is 6 months but mine says I can keep on donating as long as I have milk... surely that would be just the same milk as anyone else with an older baby?! The NHS has so many weird rules..

OMG you can't post anything on here, 'Milkbank lady' said on the phone the other day - "Did you post on Mumsnet about donating? My friend saw it" I'll never say anything remotely rude about anyone on here, ever! Especially about health visitors...that could have horrible consequences lol

My ds had donor milk as I couldn't express enough when he was born early - I'd rather he had donated milk than formula as I felt that the donor milk would be better for him!

I wish that we had had donated milk available at our hospital, when will we have the same facilities all over the country?

fastasleep..what a fab girl you are.
Ten litres!!!
Wow!!
Have you shrunk to half your normal size??

I attended an incredibly inspirational talk by an m/w who set up a milk bank in Countess of Chester hospital. It moved me to tears actually.

Really would have loved to do this but only enough for my two and I was in and out of the country a lot.

Well done again!
(Why are you expressing btw? Wouldn't your babe latch on?)

Both my babies didn't latch on, I'm beginning to think there's something a bit odd about my nipples lol... I haven't shrunk very much at all unfortunately - half would have been great!

I think the answer the the 'why aren't there more?' question is a catch 22 - there can be more banks when they have more donors... and obviously there would be more donors if they had more banks, but that's just the way it is... I don't think they get very much funding, I was thinking the other night they should you know... advertise it a bit, I mean my health visitor had no clue you could donate milk let alone that there was a bank at Clatterbridge and Chester!

just phoned my local one and the lady there said they were desperate, but they only take milk from women with babies upto 6months. but one months milk is more than nothing

Definately katzguk, think about the one ounce a day thing, you'll be able to help quite a few in a month!

Yes I think more info would be good. I go to baby groups at the hospital 2x a week, and have done for 4m and haven't seen anything about it and one of the groups is bf support! However, the nearest is Chester, about 40 or so miles away - do you think they would collect? I wish I'd known about it early on as I could have expressed extra but when I try to express now (DD 5m) I hardly get any Have other people found this? Maybe it is because I went through a phase of a few weeks when I didn't express?!

Am in awe of people who express to feed so much, it's hard work, and those who donate, it's kind and thoughtful and much appreciated I'm sure.

It's worth phoning just in case Racers... maybe I'll ask my local bank if they can make some leaflets/posters, I would quite happily deposit them at groups and hospitals (I wouldn't know who to ask about putting them in the hospital though!)

racers,the Chester lot come to my area (North Wales) which isa lot further than 40 miles!

Yes, good idea. I will ask our hospital's bfc tomorrow and if she doesn't know, I'll call them and ask them to send me some posters too

I'd forgotten about the oz a day mentioned earlier too - this would be about as much as I could produce at the moment, max!

They don't expect any more than that though racers so don't worry - the volunteer driver for Clatterbridge comes either every 2 weeks or 3 weeks (obviously designed for someone with a normal supply like you rather than a freakish supply like me!)

Thanks fa - have emailed them as phone number on site took me to wrong bit of hospital (grr hate phoning anyway, always get tongue tied)

So we'll see what they say. I see they have a financial appeal so can always send money if not milk - or both was wondering what to do with some birthday money I'd had...

Wish I could have donated, but I struggled to feed at all. My mum did, though, when my brother was tiny, but in those days there were no milk banks so she would go into the NNU and express there. She had a huge oversupply and didn't see why it should be wasted!

OMG, I'm really sorry. I pointed out this discussion to a midwifery list in the hope that someone could come up with a reserach-based reason why there's the six-month 'starting to donate' limit. No-one did but obviously someone looked.

I'm really sorry for any embarrassment I caused.

sue it's fine lol it was funny! A reason for the 6 month thing would be good actually... also a reason why the two hospitals with neo natal and scbu units etc near me don't use donor milk...I should start some kind of campaign... Alder Hey is a children's hospital but they don't use breastmilk... it just strikes me as wrong!

I enquired from a friend who works in scbu locally to see if our hospital did. she said no and said that many milk banks closed because of the fear of aids back when there were no reliable tests for them. She would love for her hospital to reopen. Preemies don't get run of the mill formula I think she mentioned but some other specially prepared stuff. Tho still not half as good as ebm.

Good point re Alder Hay fa.

The m/ws in Countess of Chester started it up in their own time with charitable donations. At time of talk (May 2004) they were hoping to shame the health trust into funding it.

I think this woman does talks quite regularly.Maybe some of you girls could ring and ask her to come out to your groups??

Phew

I have just posted another 'dog at the bone' message and will prob now be kicked off the list (or ignored!) But maybe someone will still come up with a good reason why breatmilk from a mum whose baby is 8mo but she hasn't previously donated is worse than formula milk?

I'd love to do something worthwhile like set up a milkbank... I wouldn't know where to start though, the midwives who have are very brave! Hope you get an answer soon Sue, would love to know!