Other means of contacting mothers who need your help (if you are a donor) or finding donors if you are a mom in need, are to:
~ contact your local La Leche League (they are all over, internationally)
~ contact local lactation consultants (who can provide you with resources while getting the word out or connecting you with other moms)
~ contact local lactation clinics (often at the hospital, in labor and delivery, where certified lactation consultants will work)
~ contact your local homebirth midwives (who often know lactating moms ready and willing to donate or know moms who need help)
~ contact local doulas (who often know many of the same nursing moms with extra milk to give or those who just birthed and need help)
~ contact local Mom's Milk Cafe groups (often on Meet-Up or other local social network sites)
~ drop us a note (DrMomma.org@gmail.com) and we will post a message to our Facebook page to see if we can connect you with moms in your area
The first (below) is a list of the nonprofit whole human milks in North America (there are not a lot of them). They do not 'mess with' the milk as some other donation locations do. The milk is accepted in frozen form and given directly to families in need.
The second link is a source for mothers wishing to donate directly to families looking for human milk for their little bundle. If you are in need, you can also be connected with those in your area willing to give.
The third and fourth - Human Milk 4 Human Babies (HM4HB), created by informed mothering advocate, Emma Kwasnica, and Eats on Feets, run by Shell Walker, are mother-to-mother milksharing communities formed as a way for moms to network directly with each other and share locally as they wish. HM4HB and EOF truly reflect one of the ways moms have empowered each other for most of human history, and in most of the world (providing milk to each other's babies as it is needed). This shared community of mothering is one that too often has been lost in the recent, modern West, and one which our babies, and humanity, would benefit from us remembering.
These are all great resources and those that can assist in making sure human babies are fed the one and only thing designed specifically for their health, development, and wellbeing - human milk!
Milk donation is so fabulous! If you have extra "liquid gold" to spare then it should go to babies in need! Thanks for this post!
ReplyDelete~Human milk for human babies!
I just came across your blog today and am just EATING it up!! I love it!! This is just right up my alley. This is a great post as well. My sister-in-law is 24 weeks pregnant with twins and her water broke last week. She is holding on and is on strict hospital bed rest for the remainder of her pregnancy. I plan to offer my breast milk for the babies if she's not able to pump enough on her own, as I have a 5 month old daughter and a preschooler and have been nursing for a few years. Why stop. If I can help out, then I will. Donated milk is a great idea!!
ReplyDeleteI live in Canada, and I can donate breastmilk as well, where can I go to donate mine?
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this. With my DD I was unable to fully nurse because I had a reduction. I didn't want to use formula but my ped told me that donated milk was only for preemies! I loathed using formula and am so hopeful that with any future children I will be able to use my own milk and donated milk to feed them!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great post! We are using donor breast milk for our 10 week adopted son. He had terrible reflux & formula intolerance & was about to be put on meds when we tried the donor milk. It was an amzing difference! It is so hard to find enough donors to keep up so thank you for spreading the word!!
ReplyDeleteI donate breastmilk to a mom who adopted a little girl about the same age as my son. It feels good to aid in the feeding of another baby, to help her get the best nutrition possible!
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who also has a LOT of extra frozen breastmilk. She has tried donating to a milk bank, but they rejected her milk because she is on thyroid medication. Would it still be possible for her to donate it to someone who might accept her milk?
-Grace
I am a real believer in breastmilk for babies and breastfed both our daughters for years; but I have always had low supply and always had to supplement as well. I was laughed at four years ago when I tried to find breastmilk for my healthy-yet-hungry baby. I'm glad there are other options now.
ReplyDeleteI hope this is ok to post here, but there is a local organization that started in Central Florida last year. A new mom passed away a few weeks after giving birth to her first daughter. Her husband new she would want their daughter to stay breastfed, so this organization was born. Orlando mamas have donated enough to keep the little girl on breastmilk and she's almost to her first birthday!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.getpumpedonline.org/
Yes it is...I am just in the process of donating/ shipping 230oz to a lil baby down in California...I'm so thrilled to have it to give him. I thank god to be blessed with so much milk.
ReplyDeleteI WILL have an abundant supply, so I can share with babies who are in need. I will produce perfect bountiful milk!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, I cannot wait to be able to donate, and prefer the idea of knowing the family I donate to (or wet nurse for!) :)
I find it ironic that at the bottom of the blog, the Google ad was for organic formula. It's too bad that Google doesn't have the capabilities to limit what they put on. You have a wonderful bog... I'm glad the ad was at the end, because it obviously isn't what you are promoting!
ReplyDeleteAnon -
ReplyDeleteApologies about the formula ad. It seems to be a never ending battle to submit URLs to block. Google requires each individual URL be submitted if we wish to have it blocked from our site, and they just keep showing up... We are taking steps to go entirely ad-free, but in order to do so (as a non-profit supplying resources to families in need) we must make up the funding via other means. Hopefully it will be taken care of SOON.
I had extra milk and so many sites had a very high minimum requirement and required a lot of lab work and a physical and so on and so forth, and with a demanding baby I didn't think I could meet the requirements. I happened across an ad on Craigslist by a mom who puts donors in contact with moms in need locally. I was able to donate my stored milk and was so inspired that someone was so excited to get it I pumped a for few more months!
ReplyDeleteI only wish I'd found this 3 years ago when I had my little girl...I had more than enough to feed a team of quadruplets and 'wasted' so much excess milk ~leaking was a major issue for me but I was frightened to take any of the medications or even 'home remedies' that help the milk to slow down. I have always heard stories of women having extra milk for the first few weeks and just figured mine would lessen. It was almost 6 months before the 'leaking' slowed to a reasonable level that I could go out in public with only two nursing pads tucked in to each side and an extra knitted cardigan over top of my clothing.
ReplyDeleteHad I known this type of page/service existed 3 years ago I would have been more than happy to donate it!!! I'll have to let other mom's I know in on this!!
I'd like an opinion. My son thrived on donor milk during his first year, and I want to continue giving him mama milk until he's 2. I stopped accepting donor milk shortly before his 1st birthday because I thought maybe it should be left for the newborn babies in need, but I wonder if I'm being silly. Is it appropriate to seek donor milk after they're a year old?
ReplyDeleteLunabun - if you're on Facebook, your question has been re-shared so you are able to hear from more people:
Deletehttp://www.facebook.com/peacefulparenting/posts/10151081010067671
A good friend of mine used human milk donations till her son turned 2 - he is just as deserving of this minimum recommendation as any other baby. :)
First link: milk is pasteurized... Isn't this "messing with the milk"???!!? Yes. Pasteurization will kill all enzymes, antibodies, etc...making the human milk just another dead food
ReplyDeleteWe included this option because it is one milk donor choice, but yes, direct mother-to-mother milk sharing is almost always best when baby cannot otherwise obtain milk from his/her own mom.
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