Talk to me about milk banking.....

[BCLass]

Our local hospital takes donated milk. My supply is good and I am sure I could get another few ounces a week if I expressed without messing up my supply.

My mum and gran both donated milk and it would be nice to carry on the tradition. I have always wanted to give blood, but the idea freaks me out and I don't think I could, so this feels like a Good Thing I could do.

My only reservation is what support the mothers of the babies are receiving to establish breastfeeding? I don't want the fact that their babies get my milk to mess up their supply. Does anyone have any idea about this?

Well done you for considering this.

Your worry is unfounded though. Some scenarios:

Both mum and baby ill after birth, mum not able to express or feed and baby in scbu.

Mum has no milk or not enough milk and is desperate for baby to have breastmilk.

Baby premature/in scbu for other reasons and mum just does not feel able to express milk because everything is too tired/confusing

Mum has an illness (eg not yet controlled HIV) that makes bf unsafe

It varies from hospital to hospital but in my case the bf support in scbu was truly excellent. I managed to express enough while ds was too ill to feed and then started bf. I was told that in case I did not have enough milk I would have the choice between ff and donated milk.

I hope you will go for it!

I donated my milk with DD2 and it was a very happy experience. Madmouse has given you very good reasons why - if a mother would like to BF but can't express in the panic of delivering a baby who needs SCBU, your milk could be just the ting to tide her over til she can. Or it could be used for a mum who can't express at all for the reasons MM states. I've no direct experience of SCBU / NICU myself but I doubt that giving your milk can do anythign but good

BCLass

I have been a donor and my daughter a recipient of donated milk.

Milk banks and good infant feeding support tend to go hand in hand - ie the hospitals that have them (about 10% of units in the UK) are the ones that value and support breastfeeding.

I would not worry about donated milk being misused in the way you describe. It is a scarce resource and so is normally only made available for short periods and often has to be rationed.

In our case (fairly typical) dd received donor milk for 5 days after birth, probably only about 30-40ml in total until my milk came in and I started expressing enough to feed her. Call me sentimental, but I have always viewed that as a gift from another woman that gave me confidence to keep going and feed my own baby.