| Number |
Date |
Name |
Please type or paste in your ... |
| 15 |
Wed Apr 03 21:45:54 EDT 2013 |
Andrea Vacek |
After 40 hours of labor, my baby was born by emergency c section and had to be rushed to the NICU. I was in recovery and heard that they had to give him a bottle and I was devastated because I was determined More....he would only get breastmilk. Only later did i find out that it was donor breast milk and i was so relieved. We were in the hospital 5 days and had to rely heavily on donor milk due to latching issues,a tongue tie and a severe lip tie. Without the do or milk, my baby would have had for USA for the first week of his life, the most critical time for breast milk. There is not enough thanking I can do to those donors, and I'm determined to donate my milk to repay this kindness. I know there are tons of other new moms struggling with this. |
| 14 |
Fri Apr 20 14:49:22 EDT 2012 |
Rebecca McCloskey |
My Milksharing Story: It Takes a Village… (to feed a child, sometimes!)
When my son was born nine weeks early, I was in shock. I planned on laboring and birthing with a doula by my side; More....I envisioned cuddling my baby on my chest moments after birth; and of course, breastfeeding as soon as possible. Instead, my son was whisked away to the NICU before I could touch or hold him; they didn’t allow my husband to cut the umbilical cord. It was hours before I could even see my son again and when I was brought to him, I thought, “I don’t even know if this is really my baby;” I didn’t recognize him as I wasn’t able to see him but for a brief moment after he was born because he needed assistance to breathe. I began mourning the loss of what I had hoped my baby’s birth would be. I felt out of control and the only thing that brought me relief was providing him with my breast milk. I agonizingly pumped 10-12 times a day and proudly brought every drop to the NICU. It was nearly four weeks later before he was deemed strong enough to try and breastfeed. To my delight, he latched on immediately and nursed for ten minutes before he fell asleep! I was thrilled that I was finally able to breastfeed my son! Unfortunately, we struggled once we got home. I was in pain, had bleeding nipples and my son cried day and night. I was told that he had reflux and colic. I saw no less than three lactation consultants. It was the third one who discovered my son’s tongue tie (by then he was already 3 months old). I was pressured to supplement as my son was gaining weight very slowly. I sobbed as my husband gave him his first full bottle of formula. To make matters worse, my son woke up screaming an hour later as he was suffering from a severe allergic reaction. I called my lactation consultant again and told her I would do whatever it took to make sure he only had breast milk from that moment onward. She referred me to an donor milk organization’s Facebook page and suggested I consider using donor milk while we tried to increase my supply. Almost immediately, a mother answered my posting. She had donated before and her son was born the same day as mine (it was meant to be!). She readily offered her health history and recent blood work results; within days she provided me with hundreds of ounces of milk and encouraged me as I worked to return to breastfeeding full time. All in all, I had three donors. I was so relieved and proud to have a full freezer and to watch my son thrive on breast milk! He quickly began to put on weight and I know that the reason he is so happy and healthy is because of our miracle milk! Today, he is fifteen months old and I am beyond thrilled to report that I was able to return to breastfeeding him full time and he is still breastfeeding a couple times of day (and night)! In fact, I was able to give the remainder of my donors’ milk (with their permission, of course) to another mom in need and I have since donated over 100oz of my own milk. It isn’t much, but it is a start. I am so happy to pay it forward and give back for all I have received. I continue to pump when I am able to at work and am establishing a freezer stash to make another donation in the future.
Milksharing is organic and should be viewed as such! It capitalizes on the inherent strengths of women, families, and local communities to meet each other’s needs and help each other grow and prosper. We care about one another and want what is best for each and every child. The practice of milksharing recognizes and respects our interconnectedness as human beings and our children and their future families will be healthier because of it!
To all of my donors, you have my gratitude forever and always!
Rebecca |
| 13 |
Mon May 30 18:41:58 EDT 2011 |
rebecca hill |
My story would fit in many of these catagories as it has truly taken a village to breastfeed my sons. They are both adopted and, thanks to my inducing lactation and the donor milk of more than 10 moms More....to date, my littlest guy, now 8mon, is exclusively breastmilk fed. |
| 12 |
Mon May 30 14:09:12 EDT 2011 |
Anonymous |
I felt supported as a milk donor.
I'd had to throw away milk pumped for my first child. After my second child, I was determined to find another option. I didn't want to see the milk that helped More....my own babies grow so well go to waste. |
| 11 |
Sun May 29 11:23:14 EDT 2011 |
Meredith Thomas |
Although I was not a recipient of donor milk, I felt very supported as a milk donor. A family needed donor milk and contacted their midwife (on the recommendation of the milk bank) to find a willing More....volunteer, as the cost of milk from the bank was beyond the limits of the family budget. Once we connected and determined that I would be a good match, the family provided me with everything I needed to make pumping for them as easy as possible. My husband supported this arrangement (and still does, six months later) by meeting up with the family once a week for delivery. The milk recipient and I still connect via text messaging and phone calls regularly to ensure we both have what we need. |
| 10 |
Sat May 28 15:54:01 EDT 2011 |
Anonymous |
Knowing that breastmilk was best for my son, I read all that I could before he was born and was committed to breastfeeding. The lactation consultant at the hospital was not encouraging nor helpful when More....we had trouble with latching. Luckily, I had a friend friend from church who was a lactation consultant. She came to our house, brought a special scale so we could weigh our son (without clothes/diaper) to make sure he was getting some milk at each feeding, taught me various positions for breastfeeding and taught me how to use the a supplemental nursing system. The SNS allowed our son to nurse and receive supplemental milk at the same time, so that the sucking would stimulate more milk production AND he would not starve. I desparately wanted him to have only breastmilk and another friend came to the rescue. She had been nursing her baby for two years and regularly donating to the local milk bank. Since our son was not premature nor severly ill, he did not qualify for milk from the milk bank. So my friend pumped even more and filled our freezer with milk. She even came over for visits to give me encouragement about mothering and breastfeeding and nursed our son while we visited. It was hard to see him gulp down her plentiful milk, knowing that I couldn't provide it for him, but I was so grateful to her for sharing this "liquid gold." For his first month, we were able to give our son only breastmilk--my friend's and mine. I tried every herb and food known to stimulate more milk production, pumped as much as I could, meditated, even had domperidone specially compounded at a local pharmacy, since it was not available any other way. Still, I was never able to produce enough milk to meet my son's needs, so we eventually used organic formula to supplement my milk. I continued to use the SNS to breastfeed and supplement until our son weaned at 17 months. It was a lot of hard work, heartache and occasional embarassment (people staring at the tubing equipment every time he nursed in public), but I had the satisfaction and joy of knowing that I gave him the healthiest start in life that I could. Without my two friends, the lactation consultant and the milk donor, this would not have been possible. |
| 9 |
Tue May 24 00:40:08 EDT 2011 |
Anonymous |
I was very committed to breast feeding when I was pregnant with my first child. I read at least three "how-to" books before she was even born!
It came as an absolute shock to me when I was told that More....I had HELLP Syndrome and had to deliver four weeks early. I was induced, without an epidural, and felt completely thrown off guard. The delivery was very difficult- I was emotionally and physically drained! When I found out that my baby would be in the NICU, it was almost too much for me. My husband and I so desperately wanted to do something to help our daughter, but we were hardly even allowed to hold her for the first while! They told us she was too weak to suck and would be fed through a tube until she gained weight.
After all of my reading, I knew that breast milk right from the beginning would absolutely be the best thing to help my daughter through the first few months. However, my milk had not even come in! My husband and I were so very thankful when we found out their was a milk bank where we could purchase donated milk for our daughter until I could start producing pumped milk! We were willing to pay any cost to give her the absolute best start in life. I was so touched that people would donate their own milk for circumstances like mine!! |
| 8 |
Thu May 19 22:23:35 EDT 2011 |
Anonymous |
Although I wasn't too hot on breastfeeding immediately after my son was born - I mean all this physical stuff happening to my body at once AND someone wanted to suck on me! I found it uncomfortable and More....difficult to get started. We quickly found our stride though and ended up loving breastfeeding, both of us. I turned out to be a prolific milk producer and after about 8 months he stopped using as much milk from a bottle that I could save while at work. I continued pumping to keep up my milk supply and was so proud to be able to contribute the excess to the Mother's Milk Bank of Ohio. I've been a blood donor and am on the marrow registry and it just felt right to contribute what I could to others. Breastfeeding not only was a great connection to my child, he's been amazingly healthy and I quickly returned to my prepregnancy physique - both of which I attribute to 18 months of daily breastfeeding. |
| 7 |
Wed May 18 12:40:46 EDT 2011 |
Kelly Richardson |
|
| 6 |
Tue May 17 21:11:38 EDT 2011 |
Brittany Horner |
I am a milk donating mother I have helped 2 babys one of which was born 4 weeks premature to a 17 year old mother. I have donated 225 oz to date. I feel so good about being able to help another innocent More....infant. I am a advocate for breast milk. |
| 5 |
Tue May 17 21:09:06 EDT 2011 |
Brittany Horner |
I am a milk donating mother I have helped 2 babys one of which was born 4 weeks premature to a 17 year old mother. I have donated 225 oz to date. I feel so good about being able to help another innocent More....infant. I am a advocate for breast milk. |
| 4 |
Tue May 17 13:18:21 EDT 2011 |
Katy Rank Lev |
I had terrible supply issues when my son was 3 months old and I returned to work. The stress of it all just affected my milk so much! Despite taking loads of Fenugreek, I still needed to supplement my More....milk. I have a wonderful friend who had milk to spare and sometimes pumped some extra for my son. It was so wonderful to give him food designed by nature to perfectly meet his needs, even when I couldn't quite give him enough of my own milk. |
| 3 |
Mon May 16 01:15:55 EDT 2011 |
Anonymous |
In her short life my 6-month old daughter has been nourished by the breast milk of more than 25 women, and counting. Among the milk donors are an Orthodox Jew, a refugee woman, a military wife and a gay More....woman; on the surface, little in common, save that all are mothers, with a bountiful abundance of breast milk.
I always imagined myself nursing and before my daughter was born it never occurred to me that I might not be able to do so. After a natural childbirth at my home, my baby was born at a healthy seven pounds, three ounces, but after a week, she’d lost nearly a pound and a half, since my milk production was so low. We took six intense weeks of round-the-clock nursing and pumping in which we tried everything we could think of, everything we’d heard or read or been told by a stranger, midwife or a lactation consultant to get my milk production up, with very little luck. No herbs, drugs, or alternative therapies proved effective.
After that I made the choice to prioritize a positive emotional relationship with my daughter, as opposed to a breastfeeding relationship but the idea of feeding my baby infant formula didn’t feel right. Meanwhile, neighbors and friends who’d heard about our predicament began bringing over small donations of breast milk, and then by chance she heard about the an online milk sharing group.
We knew there was some risk in seeking out donor milk, and we’ve asked each donor about their medical history, drug, caffeine and nicotine use, as well as for the results of prenatal blood tests. But ultimately I choose to believe in the inherent goodness and generosity of the women who’ve volunteered their milk for a virtual stranger’s baby, and the chance to make a personal connection, and build new friendships.
We have developed this beautiful community of unlikely friends. It is hard to put into words how grateful and how humbled I am by the generosity of the women who are providing for our daughter. They pump voluntarily to feed our child, without payment or expectation of receiving anything in return. It is the most amazing gift in the world.
*credit to Julia Silverman for helping craft my story. |
| 2 |
Sun May 15 01:50:33 EDT 2011 |
Anonymous |
I had an unplanned c-section and because of the surgery and because my daughter was born with a giant bruise on her head and couldn't open her mouth very far, breastfeeding was going to be difficult. When More....the hospital staffed lactation consultant came in, she told me that I would need to supplement until my milk came in. She asked me if I wanted to use formula, and to that I said no. Then she told us about a new program the hospital was trying out, and offered us donor milk. We would have to pay more out of pocket to use the donor milk, but to us it was worth it. So for the first 5 days of my daughter's life, she drank a mixture of donor milk and whatever colostrum I could pump out of my own breasts. I'm forever grateful that my hospital had the donor milk program as an alternative option to formula. |
| 1 |
Sat May 14 19:52:02 EDT 2011 |
Anonymous |
During my pregnancy, I did everything I could think of to ensure that I would be successful at breastfeeding. I read books, took a prenatal breastfeeding class, attended peer support meetings, consulted More....an IBCLC, and purchased a pump. I planned to breastfeed my baby until she self weaned, and I wanted to be as educated on the matter as possible before hand, hoping to avoid the problems that many women face, especially early in the breastfeeding relationship.
Early on, I felt like all my hard work had paid off. I never experienced the difficulties I had heard so often of. Breastfeeding came very naturally to us, and I couldn't have been happier.
I am affected by three autoimmune disorders, and hard as I tried to keep them under control after my daughter was born, the unavoidable stress associated with being a first time mother and lack of sleep caught up with me, and I suffered a severe flare. I spent countless hours researching options for treatments that were compatible with breastfeeding. I spoke several times with the two foremost experts in the world on breastfeeding and medications. My list of options was short, we quickly exhausted the possible treatments that were considered safe for breastfeeding, and my flare was not brought under control. My only option was to pursue treatments that would make it unsafe for my daughter to drink my milk. I was far too sick to avoid an effective treatment any longer, and was quickly becoming unable to care for my daughter.
This was a devistating blow, but I was put in touch with a group which connected mothers who were in need of breast milk with mothers who wanted to help them by donating their own milk.
The same week, I received milk from two amazing donors, who each had young babies of their own, but who spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to help my daughter continue to receive human milk while I received treatment. During my treatment, I continued to pump my own milk, to keep my supply up and ensure that my daughter would receive my breast milk once I was well again.
I am happy to report that thanks to the amazing donors who supported me along the way, I never had to resort to giving my daughter an artificial milk replacement. She received human milk exclusively during my treatment, and at eight months, I was healthy again, and able to resume breastfeeding her myself, and I will be continue doing so until she weans herself, whenever that may be. |
