Donor Milk: How Donating and Receiving Breastmilk Helped These Moms

Katie Ferraro (0s):

Are you trying to squeeze the starting solid food stuff into your already busy schedule? Well, I have an all-in-one done for You solution that's going to take the guesswork out of feeding your baby. My online program is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro contains all of my Baby-Led Weaning training videos, the original a 100 First Foods content library, plus a 100 day meal plan with recipes like the exact sequence of which foods to feed in which order. So if you wanna stop trying to piece all this feeding stuff together on your own, I would be honored if you would join me inside of the program. You can get signed up at babyledweaning.co/program. Think about the last time you ate a really dry food. So I made these terrible pork chops the other night for dinner. They were so dry. I'm an adult and I even had trouble swallowing them for your baby.

Katie Ferraro (42s):

Dry foods are definitely a choking hazard, but adding a low sodium sauce or a dipper or a topper to soften those dry foods up can make them so much easier for your baby to swallow. Although nothing was saving these pork chops, I'll be honest. The problem for babies though is that when it comes to commercial sauces, the ones you buy at the store, they have way too much sodium or added sugars that babies shouldn't have. But don't stress, I've got you covered with five low sodium sauce recipes for safe swallowing that are so easy to make and so delicious that your whole family will love them. So in the five low sodium sauces, this is a free feeding guide. I've got a low sodium marinara sauce, a chimichurri, which is a really easy way to do the new food parsley. We have an aioli sauce for dipping.

Katie Ferraro (1m 23s):

I've got a peanut sauce, easy way to introduce peanut protein, and then this really cool Goma Dare Japanese sesame sauce. We've been using this a lot on tofu lately at my house because as I mentioned, I sometimes stink at making meat. You can download the five low sodium baby led weaning sauce recipes inside of this free feeding guide on my website at baby led weaning dot co slash resources. Again, that website, baby led weaning dot co slash resources to get the sauces.

1 (1m 54s):

After we got discharged, I made a promise to myself that if I produce enough for my baby and I have extra, I am going to donate. And that's exactly what I did. I was triple fitting, so after every feeding on the breast, I had to pump. So I got a bunch of extra milk then I donated to the California bank, and that was my way to say thank you to the other moms who donated and maybe, you know, give back.

Katie Ferraro (2m 26s):

Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning. Here on the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to Solid Foods using Baby-Led Weaning. Providing adequate breast milk is not something that every mom is able to do for her baby or babies, whether the baby was born prematurely and is in the NICU, or maybe mom is undergoing cancer treatment and can't use her milk because of the chemo drugs in it.

Katie Ferraro (3m 8s):

There are so many situations where Donor Milk becomes imperative to helping infants thrive. As a mom of 34 week gestation quadruplets, I know that I was so grateful that our quads were able to receive Donor Milk when they were in the NICU. I'm currently working on my IBCLC lactation credential and I recently toured the University of California Health Milk Bank here in San Diego where I live. So UC Health's Milk Bank is an internationally renowned milk bank with really cutting edge science and safety standards. They're the only milk bank owned by a healthcare system and the only physician-led milk bank in North America. So getting to see the behind the scenes operation of how the uc Health Milk Bank operates, that was fascinating.

Katie Ferraro (3m 50s):

It's my hometown. I, I literally, I cannot believe this in my own backyard, but the fact that it is total strangers donate their excess pumped breast milk to help the teeniest tinies babies in the NICU is so inspiring. And breast milk is beneficial, as you know for so many reasons. But for premature babies, breast milk is especially important because it helps to reduce the risk of necrotizing enterocolitis or neck, which is a devastating and deadly bowel disease. I personally never produced enough breast milk to be able to donate to a milk bank. I had a set of twins after the quads. I barely made enough milk for them as well. But I'm just fascinated by the stories of moms who do donate their milk and I'm blown away by the stories of the Donor Milk recipients and how Donor Milk in many cases save their babies' lives.

Katie Ferraro (4m 34s):

So in this episode, we're going to hear from 20 moms about how Donor Milk, whether that be donating or receiving Donor Milk enriched their family's lives. The moms that you'll hear from are a mix of donors and recipients. Some utilized milk banks, others participated in informal milk sharing. So I had put out a request for Donor Milk stories to my email list and on Instagram. And then the voice messages that started flowing in were just overwhelming. They were so beautiful, just so reassuring that there are wonderful people out there willing to donate their breast milk to the most vulnerable babies. And then when you hear the side from the moms who received it, like, oh my gosh, just so wonderful. So it was really hard to narrow it down to 20 moms to feature In this episode.

Katie Ferraro (5m 14s):

I wanted to say thank you to everybody who shared their story. I also wanna say thank you to the University of California Health Milk Bank here in San Diego for the work and the advocacy that they're doing. If you would like to become a donor no matter where you live in the United States, you can. You can go to the uc Health Milk Bank website or the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. That's Habana and they're at HMBANA HMBANA dot org and then click Become a Donor In a Future episode, episode four 70 that's coming up. I'll be interviewing Allison Wolfe. She's the executive director of the University of California Health Milk Bank. But before that episode came out, I really wanted to just warm you guys up to this idea of Donor Milk and tell you the real life stories of people who are participating in both the donor side and the recipient side in case you are able to contribute and it's something you might think about doing.

Katie Ferraro (6m 2s):

I really hope you enjoy this episode hearing from 20 different Donor Milk moms about how donating and receiving breast milk enrich their lives. First up is Marielle. She's a surrogate mom. And even though things did not go as planned, she was able to become a donor and here's her story.

Marielle (6m 23s):

Hi, my name is Marielle and I was a surrogate and delivered my Surro baby last Mother's Day. My plan was to pump milk for a year for the Surro baby, but the parents decided to stick with formula since it was more convenient for us because they live about two hours away. Then I was worried that my milk was gonna go to waste since I had a freezer full of breast milk and I was worried how it may affected my postpartum and not having a baby to feed or you know, not knowing where my breast milk was gonna go. But thankfully I came across uc, milk Bank, and they have been extremely helpful and supportive and I love that I'm a part of this little community to help other moms and their newborn.

Katie Ferraro (7m 1s):

Thank you, Marielle. I also wanted to add that the uc Health Milk Bank serves and receives Donor Milk from moms throughout North America. They can set you up with safe shipping options for your donated milk if that's the route you wanna go, and you don't live in San Diego. Next up is Brianna who has an over supply of breast milk and she's feeding her own baby, but she's also able to donate.

Brianna (7m 23s):

I am an exclusively pumping mama. My daughter is three months old and has been exclusively breast milk fed since birth. I am so thankful to be an over supplier. I have about 36 ounces extra every single day. I filled a deep freezer within the first few weeks of having her absolutely love keeping the stash, but as I started filling it up and more and more and running outta space, I'm like, don, don't know how much longer I can do this. I almost felt defeated with pumping. Then I came across uc, milk Bank, and we went through the super easy process together. I love them. They are like a support family and they are always so thankful and helpful every step of the way.

Brianna (8m 6s):

And just knowing that me and my daughter are on this journey together and helping other little babies that are in need, just give me an entirely new purpose to keep pumping and we're gonna go for a year.

Katie Ferraro (8m 18s):

I love her goal of going for a year. Thank you, Brianna. Now we'll hear from Sarah who's on the other side of the equation. She's a recipient of Donor Milk and has been for all three of her babies

Sarah (8m 29s):

Exclusively. Breastfeeding was really important to me, but my milk took a while to come in, so I was able to receive donor breast milk here from uc, San Diego for all three of my babies. And I was so grateful that it helped me bridge the time until my milk came in when I was able to exclusively breastfeed them. But if I hadn't had that donor breast milk, I might not have had the motivation to keep going. So I was really grateful for it.

Katie Ferraro (8m 58s):

I love that receiving donor breast milk acted as a bridge for Sarah so she could stay motivated to breastfeed once her milk did come in. Thank you so much for sharing, Sarah. Now we're going to hear from Jenny, an adoptive mom who is able to utilize Donor Milk for her son.

Jenny (9m 14s):

Hi. I just wanted to share about how we received donation breast milk for our son. We actually adopted him and it was really important to us that he be on breast milk. Obviously with adoption, I wasn't able to breastfeed him myself, but it was just really amazing to see how many people were willing to donate their breast milk in order to feed our son. So be our big advocates for donation breast milk. We were able to feed him for a year, which was truly amazing.

Katie Ferraro (9m 45s):

So amazing. Thank you, Jenny. Well, we did IVF and fertility treatments for all of our kids, and I remember the T-shirt that the fertility clinic staff would wear on Fridays at the office. It was this really cute graphic of like curly q sperm and a slogan that said the path to parenthood is rarely a straight one. And I couldn't agree more. I think Jenny's story about being an adoptive mom and not being able to breastfeed herself but still being able to get her baby breast milk is so beautiful. Now we'll hear from Mattea who was both a Donor Milk recipient and then a breast milk donor, and she also works in lactation, which is really cool.

Mattia Alexander (10m 20s):

Hi, my name is Mattia Alexander and I'm just going to share a few of the ways that human milk has been part of my life. And the first is when my second child was born, my ex-partner, Hillary carried and delivered him and then was unable to produce his full milk needs, but really was wanting to be exclusively breastfed. So she used Donor Milk in a SNS or supplemental nursing system so that she could maintain a hundred percent Breastfeeding with him using Donor Milk. And so we would pick up thousands of ounces at a time sometimes, or at least usually four or 500 to last us a good couple weeks.

Mattia Alexander (11m 0s):

And then she was also producing milk, but we needed to supplement I think about eight ounces a day. And then in fast forward to my third child that I delivered, had some oversupply and collected milk sort of when I was working, just what I would pump and then donated milk myself. So I donated about a thousand ounces total of across like two years. Very informally just with folks on our local milkha group or colleagues or friends. And I do actually work in lactation. I'm a lactation consultant. I've been a lactation consultant for five years now. And so I've done a lot of just supporting of human milk sharing and then being able to have just knowledge and resource available for all of my clients who may need to have other support, which is actually a lot.

Mattia Alexander (11m 51s):

So there's a lot of folks who need, or a lot of folks who have. So there's actually a pretty active network in our community of informal milk sharing as well. So anyway, that's my story.

Katie Ferraro (12m 0s):

How cool that she was able to donate a thousand ounces and through her line of work can also continue to be an advocate for human milk sharing. Thank you for sharing your story, Mattia. Next is Jerry, who also received Donor Milk and then was able to donate to her Massachusetts Milk Bank.

Jerry (12m 16s):

Hey Katie, my name is Jerry. I saw your post and I wanted to just reach out because I had the pleasure of not only receiving Donor Milk when my growth restricted five pound baby who's now three and a half years old was in the hospital. We had Donor Milk because it took a long time for my milk supply to come in. I ended up nursing her exclusively starting at about three days. And I can't tell you how much of a relief it was for me emotionally and mentally to be able to feed her, and I was able to do it for free. They didn't charge me anything for it. So then I had, I was blessed with a really good milk supply and then I ended up donating milk twice. So 120 ounces two times to the Massachusetts Milk Bank.

Jerry (12m 58s):

And all of that I was able to do because I had been given Donor Milk and then been able to, you know, continue nursing her and didn't give my baby formula, which just felt absolutely amazing. I absolutely love your podcast. I love all of your resources, both my children because I now have a 1-year-old as well, our Baby-Led Weaning babies, they're the best eaters ever and I honestly couldn't have done it without all of your resources and support. So if you need anything else from me, we'd be happy to help in any way. And yeah, thank you so much.

Katie Ferraro (13m 27s):

Thank you, Jerry. That was so nice and so glad to hear that your kiddos are still great eaters. From a professional standpoint, I'm very interested in supporting moms in their Breastfeeding journey after their babies start Solid Foods. I see so much confusion and misinformation about, you know, how much infants should quote unquote like should be eating, and there's not enough Breastfeeding moms who are really getting the message that breast milk will continue to be your baby's primary source of nutrition even after you start Solid Foods. There are so many benefits to extended Breastfeeding and I wanna share some other Breastfeeding and Baby-Led Weaning podcast episodes that I've done a lot of interview experts. I'll put those in the description and the show notes so you can check them out if you wanna keep Breastfeeding after your baby starts Solid Foods, which of course I really hope you will do.

Katie Ferraro (14m 8s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Ritual (14m 16s):

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Katie Ferraro (15m 44s):

Now we'll hear from Viola. She's a preemie NICU mom who had her baby at 25 weeks. So frightening.

Viola (15m 52s):

Hello, I'm Viola and I had my baby 25 weeks and it stays four months in NICU. They provide me Donor Milk free during the NICU, but they don't provide if you are going home. And when I was in NICU, I had my meal, but when I come home after three months, I didn't have anymore meal for my breast. And I was like, I don't want to to give him formula to start formula and I buy meal from the bank and was so nice they provide that

Katie Ferraro (16m 29s):

Standard practice is that Donor Milk is free when you're in the NICU in North America. But after discharge, if you want to continue, milk banks will also sell you Donor Milk. It is expensive, but if you buy Donor Milk from a HMBANA milk bank, you can rest easy knowing that it's been properly screened and tested and analyzed and their Donor Milk is safe. So thank you for sharing your story, Viola. And now we have Cortland who has an amazing donation story.

Cortland (16m 53s):

I have donated breast milk with all three of my children. In total, I have donated over 8,000 ounces between the three children. Donating breast milk has enriched my life because I know that I am helping other mothers and babies who are unable to have access or unable to get breast milk, period. And I also have been able to educate my children about sharing and helping others through this process. So that's really how breast milk donation has enriched my family's life.

Katie Ferraro (17m 28s):

Did you hear that? 8,000 ounces amazing. I love that Cortland was able to use her experience to educate her kids about sharing and helping others. One of the really unique programs at the uc Health Milk Bank is their cherry blossom program for bereaved mothers because about 5% of their donors are bereaved mothers who have experienced infant loss and are still able to donate their milk. So Allison, the executive director, explained to me that they chose the cherry blossom to honor these mothers and their babies because the cherry blossom is the most beautiful but the shortest lasting blossom. And at the uc Health Milk Bank, they work to provide resources and information about donating milk if that's something that the bereaved mom is interested in. And as Allison explains, and these moms go home without a pediatrician, they go home without a pump.

Katie Ferraro (18m 12s):

They go home without a baby and they are mothers and their milk can help other mothers if they choose to include that as part of their grieving process. So I wanna read a brief story from a bereaved mother and a grief donor who participated in the Cherry blossom program at the uc Health Milk Bank. She says, my son Theo was born prematurely at 23 weeks and during his short NICU stay, it was my hope for him to be able to taste my breast milk. Sadly, he passed away shortly. But I wanted to honor Theo by pumping and donating my breast milk to all the other NICU babies who are still fighting. I was able to pump and donate for four months, which helped tremendously in my journey through grief as it was my physical connection to being a mother.

Katie Ferraro (18m 53s):

And it allowed Theo and I to save lives. If you would like to learn more about the Cherry Blossom program for bereaved mothers and grief donors, please visit the University of California Health, their milk Bank website. Our next mom is Emily and she's a mom who benefited from an informal milk sharing scenario.

Emily (19m 10s):

When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I knew I wanted to provide breast milk for both of them for at least a year, but didn't know if my body would be able to produce enough for both of them. Fortunately, when my supply tanked after I returned to work, we were able to rely on our donors to get us to almost a year. The babies are nine months right now, so and we have a freezer full of milk. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to do that. And I'm so appreciative of the three women who helped donate,

Katie Ferraro (19m 40s):

How amazing that Emily was able to keep her twins thriving with breast milk. And how relatable is her story about her supply tanking after she had to return to work? This happens so often and even with the advances in breast pumps, it just doesn't work for every mom to continue producing for as long as they'd originally intended. So thank you for sharing your story, Emily. It's amazing. And next up is Cheryl and she's from South Carolina.

Cheryl (20m 1s):

With my first son, we barely had enough milk, so I knew how important and special it was to be able to have extra milk. So I wanted to make sure when I had extra milk with my third son that we were able to share that blessing. So I became a milk donor in the state of South Carolina and throughout our donating year we were able to donate milk to help about 25 different babies, me and some other moms. And that was super exciting to know that we had helped give them a leg up so that they would hopefully not have to deal with necrotizing enterocolitis. Another thing that was really cool with being a milk donor is somebody that my husband knew had a family member who had passed away shortly before her daughter was supposed to be born and the baby was fine.

Cheryl (20m 42s):

They were able to save the baby. And when the baby came home from the hospital, the family was looking for dinner breast milk in order to help that little girl start her journey. And so we were able to be one of a couple different moms to help donate milk for her so that she made it to her first birthday on breast milk, which is so Cool.

Katie Ferraro (20m 58s):

Oh my gosh. The mom who passed away so sad but so amazing that they could help the surviving baby with breast milk. Cheryl also mentioned neck. That's necrotizing enterocolitis. That's the deadly bowel disease that is a leading cause of death in premature infants and neck doesn't have a single cause, but it is known that human milk can reduce the risk of neck. So if you'd like to learn more about neck and its prevention, you can visit the Neck Society's website@necksociety.org. Speaking of the NICU and premature babies. Next up, we'll hear from another Katie. This one is a NICU nurse and a mom with a very cool donation story.

Katie (21m 33s):

Hi, my name is Katie. I'm a nurse and a mom in Kentucky. I worked in the NICU for nine years before my first was born and got to see the power of donor breast milk in action every day at work with the premature babies and also the babies with gut issues or needed other surgeries. All of our fragile babies were on it. And just watching over the years how much it helped those families and those babies grow and stay well. I was really moved to donate to the Human Milk Bank of North America whenever I was lucky enough to have an oversupply with my kids. So I would recommend it every chance I get it.

Katie (22m 15s):

The screening process was so easy. Donating was a little hard during covid, but otherwise it was just a drop off. It's quick and I'm very, very proud and pleased that I could be a part of that for these families. Thank you for spreading the word.

Katie Ferraro (22m 32s):

You are welcome Katie. She makes a good point that getting onboarded as a donor can sometimes be a bit arduous, but the payoff is totally worth it. Alison Wolf, who's the executive director at the uc Health Milk Bank has this amazing team of donor coordinators. They literally bend over backwards to get potential donors screened and into their system if you also want to become a donor. Now we'll hear from Ashley who is at first a little nervous that she wasn't going to meet the minimum number of ounces needed to donate.

Ashley (23m 0s):

Hi Katie. Thank you so much for letting me share my experiences of donating breast milk. I exclusively breastfeed. My baby started pumping when she was about six weeks old 'cause I wanted to have a little bit of a stockpile for when I returned to work. And just in the event that Breastfeeding didn't go as well as I was hoping, I did go back to work when she was about three and a half months old and I did start pumping while I was away with her. And so that started going well and I learned that the composition of breast milk changes as a baby gets older. So I just felt better giving her the milk that I more recently pumped just 'cause it was to the composition that she needed.

Ashley (23m 47s):

And breast milk is taking up room in my freezer. So I looked into the process of becoming a milk donor. It is a little bit of a process, but I totally understand why. That being said, I just dropped off my first donation of breast milk. I had to have a hundred ounces and so it was a little bit hard getting rid of, but it also felt really good just clearing up that space in my freezer. And it just feels so good knowing that it now goes to NICU babies and preemie babies. And so my hard work did not go unnoticed.

Katie Ferraro (24m 22s):

Your hard work did not go unnoticed. Ashley, I liked that she mentioned the composition of breast milk changing at the uc Health Milk Bank tour. I got to observe the diet tech doing the nutrition analysis of the donor milk with this really like high tech fancy equipment that they have. And what they do is they pool between five and seven different donor moms milk in order to get the right mix of protein and calories for the preemie babies. But then what they'll do for you as the donor is they print out this little nutrition facts panel that shows you the analysis of your own milk. It's so amazing. It's just like a little perk of donating there. Now we'll hear from Nicole from Philadelphia whose baby struggle with food allergies is what introduced her to the world of Donor Milk.

Nicole (25m 3s):

Hi, my name is Nicole from Philly, and so far I've donated more than 20 liters of breast milk to a milk bank and my baby was diagnosed with cow milk protein allergy when she was for weeks old and allergy came through my milk, so she's ex exclusively breasted baby. And back that time I donated my first batch to a friend and then when she turned 12 months old, I started donating to a breast milk bank. Since she wasn't getting bottles in the middle of the day. She's still Breastfeeding in the mornings and at night and sometimes throughout the night.

Nicole (25m 47s):

And it's been a long journey, like I said, Breastfeeding. But it's so great experience that I'm able to donate and we made it to 16 months exclusively breastfeed. And now I've been donated to lots of babies on NICU. So it's been a great experience. I'm so happy and I'm, I really want to keep doing it because it's, it's amazing.

Katie Ferraro (26m 13s):

Wow, did you hear that part where she said she donated over 20 liters of breast milk? That's almost 700 ounces. So when your baby has a food allergy and you're struggling to figure out what's going on, it's so nice to know that there's screened Donor Milk that you can lean on as you work to eliminate certain foods in your own maternal diet so that you can keep Breastfeeding. So thank you for sharing your story, Nicole. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Sleepcove (26m 41s):

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Katie Ferraro (27m 25s):

Next up is Beth who's donated over 4,000 ounces across two of her own baby's lifespans.

Beth (27m 30s):

Being able to be a milk donor actually turned out to be somewhat of a relief for me. I started pumping with my first as I was a little bit anxious about whether or not I would have enough milk to nurse for as long as I wanted to. And then very quickly we started running out of freezer space and up into expiration guidelines for the milk. And when I found my local milk bank, I was very excited to see that I would be able to put all of that effort into something good for other people who truly needed it. I was a little bit nervous at first. They had 150 ounce minimum and I wasn't sure that that was something that I was going to be able to meet for them and I didn't wanna disappoint. And over the course of my two babies, I actually ended up donating close to 4,000 ounces.

Beth (28m 13s):

So it was, it was a very nice feeling for me to know that all of that effort on my part went to go help somebody else. And even when I say all that effort, it wasn't that big of a deal and I was happy to help.

Katie Ferraro (28m 24s):

Okay, so Beth was also a little nervous about her Milk Banks 150 ounce minimum at the uc Health Milk Bank. I believe their minimum is a hundred ounces in order to donate. If you are ordering, they have minimums too. So if you're a local pickup in San Diego, the order minimum is 40 ounces and then the order minimum for out of area shipments is a hundred ounces. Next up is Sapi a mom who made a very interesting promise to herself about Donor Milk.

Malia (28m 52s):

Hi, I'm Dr. Malia. I'm a developmental psychologist in Mama of one. He's now 10 months. In his early days he was at the NICU for 36 hours, which were the worst 36 hours of my life. And there he got some's milk and that gave us a peace of mind that he's getting everything he needs and it's high quality. And on those like very difficult times, that was a comfort. So after I got discharged, I made a promise to myself that if I produce enough for my baby and I have extra, I am going to donate.

Malia (29m 34s):

And that's exactly what I did. I was triple fitting. So after every feeding on the breast, I had to pump. So I got a bunch of extra milk, then I donated to the California Milk Bank, and that was my way to say thank you to the other moms who donated and maybe, you know, give back because it was a lifesaver for us. And hopefully my milk was lifesaver to other babies and families.

Katie Ferraro (30m 2s):

How amazing that it was the worst 36 hours of re's life. That time she spent in the NICU with her baby, that turned into an inspiration for her to pump and donate and help other similar parents in need. Thank you Spire for sharing your story. And now we'll hear from Susanna, who was a Donor Milk recipient as well.

Susanna (30m 18s):

My son surprised us by being born at 37 weeks and my milk had not come in yet, so we started him on donor breast milk in the hospital while I started to attempt to nurse and pump. I then continued to do this at home, but never was able to get enough when I pumped, when I returned to work due to the stress of my job. So we were very fortunate to be able to receive Donor Milk from a number of local moms in our area, and we have been using that to supplement what I pump and what I am able to nurse him when I am at home.

Susanna (31m 0s):

This has been a humongous blessing to us. I can't imagine how much we would be spending on formula without

Katie Ferraro (31m 7s):

Susanna's aituation is not unique for premature moms. You struggle when your baby's in the NICU and then if you're going back to work, of course that's so stressful and affects supply. So I'm really glad that she was able to receive Donor Milk. I think hers was from an informal milk share since she mentioned it was helping her save money by not having to buy formula. But thank you for sharing your story, Susanna. We'll hear next from Danielle, a mom who talks about the mental health benefits of donating to help other families in need.

Danielle (31m 31s):

When I had my son in February, I had a really difficult time with Breastfeeding. My supply was really low and his latch was not great, so I was pumping a lot in order to top him up and to get my supply up. It was a really stressful time and I think it contributed a little bit to me developing some postpartum depression and anxiety. So it was a really, really hard time for me. But today I was able to give over 40 ounces of that milk that I had pumped to another mom going through the same sort of situation.

Danielle (32m 12s):

And I just feel like that is something good, me being able to do something good with the difficult struggle that I went through and kind of just like the light at the end of the tunnel for me.

Katie Ferraro (32m 26s):

Thank you for sharing, Danielle. There are so many dynamics right in that old donor recipient relationship, and I'm glad that donating was able to help you out in your postpartum health journey. Next up is Emily, and this is one of my favorite stories because she literally went from zero to hero status. Check this one out.

Emily (32m 43s):

My journey with Donor Milk started with my daughter's 10 day NICU stay. She received exclusively Donor Milk from the hospital. While this time was incredibly stressful, I felt so appreciative that other moms had donated their milk to these tiny vulnerable babies. When my daughter was around six months old, I realized that my stash of milk was going to exceed what she would need, and I knew exactly what to do. I researched my local milk bank and started the process to become a donor. It was a simple but thorough vetting process to make sure they were only collecting milk from committed and safe donors. As I wrap up my Breastfeeding journey, I am proud to have donated nearly 1000 ounces of breast milk a fe that seemed impossible when a year ago I was collecting mere millimeters to take to my daughter in the NICU.

Emily (33m 23s):

I feel blessed to be able to pay it back a bit and even more thankful that milk banks exist to ensure that the recipient babies are protected and cared for.

Katie Ferraro (33m 32s):

Such a wonderful story. Thank you, Emily. Okay, we have two more Donor Milk stories to share. Next up is Sherilyn. She had a really scary doctor's appointment that sparked her need for Donor Milk.

Sherilyn Bateman (33m 44s):

Hi Katie. My name is Sherilyn Bateman and my daughter is Magnolia. I started using Donor Milk after dropping in my milk supply at around 10 months. She went in for her doctor visit and she was severely underweight to the point of possibly being hospitalized. I reached out through some groups and through some friends and was able to find Donor Milk. And because of that, I was able to get her back up to weight. And not only that, she actually is now off the charts in her weight about eight months later is thriving and doing amazing I. don know what I would've done without having that milk. And it is such a blessing, and I hope that with my next pregnancy I can do the same for somebody else.

Katie Ferraro (34m 24s):

Thanks. So glad to hear her daughter is thriving and I really hope that she can donate with her next pregnancy too. Thank you so much for sharing Sherilyn. And finally, here's Cassie and her story is incredible.

Cassie (34m 36s):

Hi Katie. I was lucky enough to be able to exclusively breastfeed my three oldest children. Unfortunately, when I found out I was pregnant with my fourth, I also found out I had stage three Hodgkin's lymphoma cancer. And so I was undergoing chemo treatments during my pregnancy and after I delivered the baby. And so I was unable to breastfeed because my breast milk was full full of chemo. So we were able to receive donor breast milk and give that to our newborn instead, which was a huge blessing and we were so grateful for that.

Katie Ferraro (35m 11s):

Oh my gosh. Can you imagine having three kids and then being pregnant with your fourth and having cancer and then needing to go through chemo? There are certain medical conditions and medications which would preclude you from being a donor, but then those same moms are the ones who are in really great need because their own breast milk can't be used for their babies. So thank you for sharing your story, Cassie, and a huge thank you to all of the moms who called in with all of their stories. You are all amazing and so inspiring. If you want more information about becoming a donor or ordering Donor Milk, please contact the University of California Health Milk Bank, or you can search up the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. That's habana to find an accredited milk bank in your area. I'll put a lot of the links and resources mentioned from this episode in the description where you're listening, but also go on the show notes, which you can find at blwpodcast.com/459.

Katie Ferraro (35m 60s):

And a special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave. We're online at blwpodcast.com. Thanks again for listening and I'll talk to you next time

Culture Kits (36m 21s):

Ever dreamed of traveling the world with your children without leaving your home. Tune to Culture Kits podcast to embark on an incredible adventure right where you are. At Culture Kits, we collaborate with cultural organizations, authors and educators from all over the world to expand our children's horizons, inspiring them to embrace our differences while bridging communities worldwide. And that's Culture Kids Podcast. Here's your passport. Let's go. Oh.