Donating breast milk.

[GoodGollyMissMolly]

Does anyone know how I can go about donating breastmilk?
I would like to do so, maybe at a later date though. DD is 7 weeks old and is demand fed and I express on top of her demand feeding so I now have quite a good supply. Even though it seemed to diminish slightly at first, but now I can express quite a bit.

TIA

ask your local hospital? there's a number on the wall at ours

Depends if you're close to a milk bank I think.

www.ukamb.org/milkbanks.htm

link here: www.ukamb.org/donor.htm
I'd recommend it highly - I donated for 6 months and it was really easy to do and nice to know that it would make such a big difference to babies out there. I just wish I'd had access to donated milk when my dd was born at 35 weeks and had to be tube fed formula.

Just to add I am 35 miles away from my nearest bank but they were still happy to come and collect it from me.

Thank you for the link VS.
I will ask the hospital next time I am there.

I'd highly recommend it as well. I know that Southampton milk bank are also happy to travel to pick up frozen milk. They also supply storage bottles and can lend a pump if you need one. You need to have a blood test for screening and then your milk is screened and pasteurised before being given to needy babies.

I planned to donate whilst I was pregnant and was so shocked to end up needing to use the milk bank for DD when she was premature that it means even more to me now to donate milk. I cannot explain what it felt like when I was told that DD would have to be tube fed and then told that she could have donated milk until my supply was up and running.

my local hosp will not accept frozen milk I would have liked to with at least 3 of my children, but they weren't that interested

Thats good to know Jenkywoo, the closest one to me is the Huddersfield one, but it is 92 miles away from me. I hope they would be willing to come that far.

Caz .
We have one of the best maternity units in the country here so we are very lucky, I just hope that they do take donated milk.
I have an appointment there in a couple of weeks so I will ask then.

swaliswan, it's so good to know that prem babies have that support should they need it.

I wanted to donate when I had DS as DD had been really porrly in SCBU and my MIL had gone on about donating, but they didn't do it.
I'm at a different hospital now though and we have a milkbank so am determined to do it this time.

I investigated this - you need to have a baby with established bfing who is under 6 months (you can go on donating after 6 months but they need to be under 6 months when you start iyswim)

Most places are willing to collect but do differ on their requirements.

The requirements on you are very similar to those for donating blood - notably you can't donate milk if you have had a blood transfusion ( So as I had a transfusion when dd was born I couldn't donate )

I wish every hospital did this - ds had donated milk in SCBU and I donated loads when we left (was producing gallons so they had a whole freezer full of my milk anyway!). Very worthwhile cause, it made a world of difference to me and I'm so grateful to the women who gave their milk to my ds. It's great that you're thinking of doing it.

My mother later told me that she had donated milk when I was a baby. Apparently they had a "milk round" van that came and picked it up!

liegeandlief, my nana donated milk when she had had my mum, 55 years ago now (oooh glad my mum doesn't some on here ). Nana said that the hospital picked it up fresh every day for the prem babies, they even gave her a breast pump!

Imaginwittynamehere, DD is 7 weeks old and I haven't had a blood transfusion,so I hope they will consider me.