Donating Breastmilk

[sehbub]

My uncle and his husband are finally expecting (after 18 years together!!) and their surrogate is due in August.

They're not sure if she'll be pumping to supply the babies with any breast milk, and since my babe is due at the end of April, I offered to pump and help them get at least a small stash built up. I doubt I'll be able to support my baby and pump for twins, but every little bit helps.

Any tips for shipping breast milk to them? Also, any idea how to find local milk banks? HMBANA only shows about a dozen milk banks across the country, and the closest one to them is about 6 hours away.

Thanks for any tips!


*oh, and pumping isn't an issue. I EPed for DD3 for several months while nursing DS and had no issues*

[haydn'smommy]

They could certainly check out MilkShare, that would be their best bet. Milkbanks are very expensive, and usually only by prescription, IIRC.
As far as shipping milk goes, I do this once monthly for my milkshare mama. I freeze my milk in milk storage bags and then put those bags in gallon sized freezer bags. I get a styrofoam cooler and 5 lbs of dry ice. I put 1/2 the dry ice in the bottom of the cooler, put a layer of newspaper down or wrap my bags of milk in a brown paper bag, then top with the remaining dry ice. Then I put the sealed cooler in a box and seal it up and ship it overnight via UPS. It is very expensive to do this, but it's worth it.

[Nimbus]

I also recommend MilkShare . I quickly connected with a local couple who supplied the milk storage bags and then picked up my stash every other month. I don't have experience with shipping but, as hadyn'smommy wrote, have heard it's really expensive. So, it's probably easiest, long-term for them to try to find several local donors.

[sehbub]

Thank you so much for the info, ladies.

I sent my uncle an email about Milkshare so we'll see if they can find someone local. They live in a large metropolitan area, so they should be able to.

I'll ship them milk when my stash permits.

[haydn'smommy]

Oh, I'll add...the shipping from TN to CA via UPS overnight and guaranteed by end of business day for 175oz of breastmilk plus 5 lbs of dry ice was $154 yesterday. I have a recipient who is willing to pay for that because her daughter loves my milk. But if I was having to pay that out of my own pocket, I would be cost prohibitive to ship less than 300oz at a time, IMO.

[sehbub]

Originally Posted by haydn'smommy

Oh, I'll add...the shipping from TN to CA via UPS overnight and guaranteed by end of business day for 175oz of breastmilk plus 5 lbs of dry ice was $154 yesterday. I have a recipient who is willing to pay for that because her daughter loves my milk. But if I was having to pay that out of my own pocket, I would be cost prohibitive to ship less than 300oz at a time, IMO.

Egads.

Hopefully Milkshare works.

They're in Nashville, btw. Should be able to find someone, yes?

[UberMama]

PM me if you like. I'm a surrogate and on another forum for surrogates (and IPs). There's many surrogates there that pump after the birth but their IPs don't want the milk. Also, the cost to ship may be less. Not everyone uses dry ice (not always an absolute need), first of all. Shipping larger quantities can help as well. There's a lot of ways to ship milk. There's a thread on the surrogacy forum that I am on about shipping milk as well.

Definitely MilkShare as well, which is an awesome resource. I found two mama's in need of milk here on MDC and donated to them after I had my first surro baby (my IPs didn't want me to ship my milk to them, sadly..).

I'm delivering in June, but I have a couple of people interested in my milk and my IPs have yet to decide if they want me to pump and ship for them after they go home (I'll be BFing baby until they leave).

[phrogger]

Like ubermom said, have your uncle check out the surrogacy sites and see if he can get a direct donor. I pumped for all the kids I had as a surrogate, and I had other people pumping for them as well as I donated my milk to other people.