I just did something extremely gratifying and slightly out of character for me. It's something that filled an empty place in my soul that I never knew was there. One thing, however, that is not out of character for me is that I've always liked to help people, and this truly fulfilled my consistent overwhelming desire to help people in need.
I donated my breast milk to a needy baby!
It wasn't at all as hard as I thought, either. Over the past almost 6 months of my daughter's life, I have pumped and collected bags and bags and bags of breast milk. I pumped almost daily, gathering a good 6-8 ounces of milk per session. I usually stored it in 3-4oz portions (good serving size for baby), so the amount of little baggies in our freezer multiplied quickly. She hardly every needed to use any of it, since I'm a breastfeeding stay-at-home mom, and therefore always handy if she needs to eat! The only time I ever fed her a bottle was either when she was being babysat at my mom's house and needed to eat when I wasn't there (which only ever happened like 3 times total) and at night when my breasts were so full, I had to express them both at once, so I'd pump and my husband would feed her a bottle if she woke up. That happened regularly for quite some time, and pretty soon I discovered that I was making twice as much milk than my baby needed!
By November, the freezer was bulging with frozen breast milk! We could hardly fit any of our own food in, so I knew we had to do something. Luckily, around that same time, my cousin came to visit who had two daughters of her own, ages 3 & 1. She came with a bit of priceless info, introducing me to the website: MilkShare. I was surprised you don't have to be tested for a billion diseases, be free of medications and have your milk sent in to a lab for more testing & pasteurization before you can be approved for breast milk donation. This website has nothing to do with your milk at all, it is merely a place where donors and their potential recipients can meet and arrange to deliver/collect the goods. It's like match.com, only for milk and babies!
My eyes have been opened to a new urgency in the country. Breast milk is like gold when you are a mother who is unable, for whatever reason, to produce it (whether it be not enough or not at all). It is EXTREMELY pricey to purchase donated breast milk from donor facilities/clinics, and most people just can't afford it. MilkShare is free. Parents from MilkShare are an inspiration to me. What I love about all the parents from MilkShare is that they all believe the same, that breast milk is by far the best (or more accurately, the ONLY) choice when it comes to nourishing their infants. Formula is crap, and they know it. I know that if I were in their shoes, I would seek out the same for my baby.
As a matter of fact, I thought long and hard about that very thing back when I was sure the only way I would become a mother was by adoption. One thing was always for sure, formula was out of the question. I wanted to breastfeed my baby, and two of the things I looked into were medically induced lactation and breast milk donation. I always thought I'd come off as kind of a snob if that ever got out, but after becoming pregnant and attending birthing classes and getting swarms of infant reading materials, I was glad to hear that most doctors believe formula should only be used as a last resort, in an emergency situation when breast milk cannot be obtained. It's nice to see so many other people at MilkShare caring that much about their baby's health to take the time to think for themselves and educate themselves about it instead of taking the easy way out with formula.
Posting my ad for free milk felt rather strange to do, by the way, but not even a day went by before I had a response from an eager milk-less mom who lived 5 hours away from us! She had a preterm baby girl and was unable to continue pumping for her, as her milk supply had quickly diminished for no apparent reason, and her daughter could not tolerate formula. So she and her husband were desperate. Mike and I quickly made plans to meet them, and decided to drive an hour and a half to meet part way at a rest area and do the transfer. We filled up our entire big cooler with the bags of milk, and I sure wish I had thought to take a picture of it, because it was funny. Good thing it's winter, because that's a long trip for frozen milk! It was a wonderful experience because they were so nice and soooo grateful.
So, the Christmas spirit is alive in me now that I've accomplished that very self-less deed of providing healthy breast milk to a needy little baby girl named Tala. It feels great to help someone else after so many, many years of having to rely on other people to help us. I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to be able to "give back". I think it's helped me grow as a human being, become more balanced in my sanity, if you will. Considering I've spent the majority of my adult life being a bitter selfish cave-dweller, this is big for me. I have actually extended my heart beyond the boundaries of my home and into that of a stranger's child. This one's for little Tala. I wish her all the best of luck in her future! :)
