Milk donation for premie and need advice for Placenta Previa

[is it puppies?]

A dear family member has complete placenta previa (she's 20 weeks along), and while we won't know for sure till the end of the month it looks as though the placement is such that it likely won't move and she'll have to have a CSection and from the info out there it will probably be around 36-37 weeks.

She is of course really really hoping to exclusively breastfeed, but having a csection and the recovery as well as the fact that the baby will likely end up in NICU being pumped full of formula it doesn't bode well. She's already looking at getting a postpartum doula who is a LLL leader, and trying to figure out what else to do to set things up for the best start possible. What else should she be doing in preparation? Any resources I should point her towards?

Now for my part- my DD is 20 weeks old and exclusively BF. I happen to have a medela swing purchased for me by the family member above which I haven't used yet mostly due to laziness and no pressing need. I have offered to start pumping and stashing milk now in an attempt to prevent formula from ever having to enter DFMs baby while she is trying to establish BF herself. Is this likely to work? I mean, will they giver her baby my frozen milk in the NICU and what do we need to consider? If this seems at all likely to work, how much should I stash and should I start now? What do I have to consider while pumping so that I don't mess things up for myself (ie oversupply).

Also- is my dear family member going to have to taste my milk when she defrosts it? She says she won't and I think one has to to make sure it's still good. I don't want to waste my time if she won't be able to use it for a reason like that!

Crossposted in birth and beyond.

Thanks for any advice!

[liberal_chick]

I doubt the NICU would allow another person's milk to be given w/o it coming from a milk bank.

But I don't think your family member will have to worry too much about formula being pushed on her baby unless there is another issue. At 36-37 weeks baby may not even end up in the NICU and, if baby does, mom should still be allowed to nurse. My ds was born at 30 weeks so we did 7 weeks in the NICU and he never had any formula (although I did allow them to fortify the milk with human milk fortifier, but that should be an issue with a baby born so close to term).

[aikigypsy]

Originally Posted by liberal_chick

But I don't think your family member will have to worry too much about formula being pushed on her baby unless there is another issue.

This was my experience, too. I had complete placenta previa, and had a bleed a bit before 34 weeks, and an "emergency" c-section (due to an amniotic fluid leak) a few days later, because I was in the hospital. The nicu tried to feed the babies as much of their mom's milk as possible. My guy was on some IV feeds in his first few days, and he only wound up having formula one day (we live several hours from the hospital where he was, and I didn't get them milk in time on my first trip home after I was discharged). He had vitamins, iron, and supplemental calories for a while, but if your relative does make it to 37 weeks, then the baby may not need any of that.

You can ask about donating milk, but don't stress out too much about the nicu pushing formula. I certainly didn't find that to be the case, quite the opposite, in fact.

[is it puppies?]

It's good to hear that they are not pushing formula, I hope that's the case if the need comes up. It seems a lot of my friends have had their babies in NICU forumula fed, and pretty much everybody I know who have had c-sections end up formula feeding (which is a sad number of people at this point). We are also concerned that her milk may not come in fast enough or have enough due to the stress, she is very upset about the whole thing.