Donating milk

[tmae]

I would love to donate milk if I can, but have no clue how to go about this. I'm near Kingston, and know they used to have a milk bank but there is no recent information on it. Any advice would be great, thanks!

Ring your nearest neonatal unit and ask them, or ring the hospital switchboard and ask to be put through to the donated milk coordinator. In our local hospital, the donated milk coordinator was one of the neonatal nurses. I donated milk 4 years ago after my DD was saved by the neonatal unit. She didn't need donated milk but many more babies than was possible to give it to did need it, so the more people donate milk, the better. You will have to have a blood test for a number of conditions that can pass into milk but they are a formality usually. Good luck!

Have a look at the UKAMB website. They may have more up to date information. I've been donating to Queen Charlotte Hospital, and it's very straightforward once you get your all clear from the blood tests (standard stuff).

Lovely thank you, I shall investigate. I would love to be able to help in some way.

You might also want to consider informal sharing via HM4HB (Human Milk for Human Babies).

I've done both, via milk bank up to 12 months and then a local family - in this case mum has one of the rare conditions leading to insufficient milk production, baby didn't really tolerate formula - it is in someways nice to know where your milk is going.

It's a wonderful thing to do either way, hope it works out for you.