[Snowdrift]

Curious how many of us are here and if anyone wants to chat.

I was hoping during my pg to be able to do this--bought a pump in advance and starting pumping on day two. This turned out to be a good thing since DD had latch issues and we fed expressed milk for a few days until we figured out nipple shields (which we then weaned off of a couple weeks later). I was very successful with my pumping to donate project for the first 10 weeks or so but now haven't pumped in several days becuase of finals, moving, and other stressors. I'm a little concerned about getting my supply back up once I'm ready to start pumping regularly again, which I plan on doing next Sunday morning (my last final is Friday).

So, anyone else out there?
Challenges? Success stories?

 

[snowbunny]

I pumped to donate before my supply finally bottomed out on the pump and I went from pumping 2-3x what DS needed to pumping what he needed or less. (I'm a WOHM who pumps while at work, but BFs otherwise.)

It was challenging because I live in a rural area and UPS refused to arrange for pickup, so whenever I needed to donate I'd have to drive about 1.5 hrs roundtrip to the UPS Store in the next town over.

How did you deal with the restrictions on meds, herbs and teas? That was tough for me--well, the teas anyway.

 

[mfp02]

I will be donating after my next pregnancy. But I am not even pg yet.

I plan on pumping for at least a month, if not 3 months (hopefully six or more!).

 

[Tonia80]

I donated to an adoptive mama in another state for a few months. I have oversuply issues in my first year PP so it was a blessing to me to have something to do with all that extra milk in my deep freeze!

 

[jrojala]

I have always been interested in pumping to donate. How do you get started???

 

[Tonia80]

I just posted on a few sites that I found taht allow moms liek me with milk to donate to post and I got a bunch of emails from moms in need. A few were sketchy though, you have to be careful of sickos with fetishes if you know what I mean, if you go the private donation route I mean. You can donate to a milk bank too but I wanted to do it privatly as banks tend to charge moms in need up to 3 bucks per ounce and I hate that. The mom I donated to just paid for shipping.

 

[mommy2abigail]

I donated too. I pumped like crazy when dd was born, 'cause it took5 days for my milk to come in, and they made me ff.

:

So I wanted to get that milk in fast. Anyway, after dd was home, I continued to pump 2-3x a day, and she refused the bottle at a week old (

) so she was ebf after that. I continued to pump because I was always scared I'd have low milk supply. As it turns out, I had a TON of milk. I reconnected with a mama from my birth class who had low milk supply and offered her mine. I gave her my milk for about 6 months, till her babe started solids, then she was able to ebf him. It was so cool knowing I was 'nursing' two!

I will definately do it again. And definately privately. I dont agree with the $3 an oz charge either.

:

 

[HaveWool~Will Felt]

I have donated, as well.
I work close with a lay midwife in my area. She is always in need of donations.
So contacting your local midwives is a good place to start.
Also, word of mouth....this is a another great source.

BTW: FEDX will come and pick up...they are great about human milk being transported.

 

[annekevdbroek]

I pumped and donated for 9 months. The first 6 months I gave to a milk bank and the last 3 months I gave the milk to a friend with supply issues. I started when my son was 3 weeks old - I had huge problems with oversupply and started pumping because I was in so much pain. My son never took a bottle so donating was a good option. I also felt that the pumping/donating early on helped with my committment to nursing, it gave me one more reason to stick with it.

I am pregnant now and will probably pump donate again.

 

[mfp02]

http://milkshare.birthingforlife.com/

There's some info about donating milk. They have a Yahoo group where plenty of parents in need are!

I'll be pumping and donating full time for at least one month after delivering my surrobaby, but I am hoping for six months (or longer!).

 

[MaryJaneLouise]

You women are all so awesome!!!!

:

 

[secretresistance]

I plan to pump for my special needs brother who gets all of his nutrition through a feeding tube. Glad to have some resources here. Will definitely keep reading!

 

[Quagmire]

NAK...

Very glad to find this thread!

I just started pumping for a friend with low supply who has twins. One twin is in the early stages of congestive heart failure

so I'm not sure if there would be anything to consider with that situation.

I am also nursing my 5 week-old. I will be returning to work in November and pumping while I'm at work. Normally I have a huge oversupply but I'm worried about being able to pump enough for both babies. My friend's baby is 10 weeks but is stilll only 7 lbs, so her milk needs are probably lower than my own baby at this point. I imagine everyone's needs will increase over time though. Anyone who has BTDT and has tips, please share!

Finally I'm looking for some info on shipping milk. My friend lives close by but we will be travelling for 2 weeks next month so I'll need to ship the milk back here. I want to avoid bringing it on the plane with me since it will be so difficult with new regulations

So... how do you ship your milk? What do you pack it in? How does it stay cold? Does it need to be frozen before it's shipped? Any other special considerations?

I'll probably be back with more questions, but thanks Tie-Dyed for starting this thread!

 

[3703]

Quagmire,
Some moms ship in a coleman camping cooler, with dry ice or special gel packs. Fill any empty space in the cooler with newspaper or ideally fill it all with milk as it will stay cooler. And then just tape it shut. I have also heard that the styrofoam coolers that you get Omaha Steaks or other mail order food in are great but I have never seen one with my own eyes so am not sure. In that case you would want to freeze the milk before shipping, I can't imagine how you would keep it cool enough while shipping to be "safe" for that long without having it freeze. So just starting with frozen milk makes sense to me. It can be quite expensive to ship due to the weight and there are some horror stories about delivery not happening as scheduled and the milk melting.
HTH

 

[Jenen]

I started donating for a friend & her son. She's a breast cancer survivor

: & didn't have the correct equipment for BF

Her son & my DD are the same age, it's was nice to not only help my friend but DD's friend too!

With my DS I started pumping and frezzing because I was diaganosed with a thyroid problem and was scared that I would be able to keep BFing him. He was only 4 months & I would do anything possible to not use formula

Everything is ok so now & I have tons of milk and need to find a place for it.

I didn't have any "extra" supply the second time around so I just started to pump everyday first thing in the morning. I would pump until I got nothing and then switch. I found that if I paid attention to the milk coming out I got more. If I would read e-mail or watch TV the milk would stop. So I would picture the milk going through the ducts and out, weird but it worked! I think I was a little stressed at the thought of being able to pump enough milk for 6+ months.

Anyways, I like Cyneburh suggestion about the pumping and nursing together. I would add to that a pump first thing in the morning or when you are full and ready to pop!

I stopped pumping when my teenage nephews were here for a few weeks (the were ff and don't "get" BF). After reading this thread I feel excited about pumping again. Hey, if you've got it, share it!

 

[techno_dara]

Hey all! I too donate to my local breast milk bank. This is the first time I've ever done it. I had such a huge supply in the freezer that hubby threatened to dump it. NNNOOOOO!!!! That's when I started looking into donating it. I've donated around 150 oz so far. My goal is 200. I think I'll make it.

The milk bank just gets the excess my DD doesn't eat. They did give me a huge list of drug/herbal restrictions and the amount of time I have to wait after having one of them before I can pump for the bank again. That's been really helpful. So I don't have to stay away from herbals entirely, but usually just have to wait 24 hours.

 

[Jenen]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quagmire So... how do you ship your milk? What do you pack it in? How does it stay cold? Does it need to be frozen before it's shipped? Any other special considerations?

I got a copy of my friends instructions for mom's that donate to her on shipping BM. Hope this is helpful for someone!!

How to package milk for shipping

First of all, make sure you CALL ME before you ship any milk! I want to make sure that I'm here to receive it or that I can at least have someone come by to put it in the freezer for me!

The BEST coolers for shipping are the thick Styrofoam ones like they use to ship the Omaha meats. If you can get one of those that would be GREAT!!! (Ask your neighbors, friends, co-workers, boss if they have one!) If not, then find the thickest one you can at the store and I will reimburse you for your expense. I can even send the cooler back to you empty for your next shipment to help us save money!

Once you've expressed and frozen enough milk to send (over 150 - 200 oz. at a time would be nice to save on shipping costs - but I'll have you send sooner if Tadpole is running out of milk!) then you can package your milk to send. This is how I recommend packing the milk!

•Get some dry ice and PUT ON GLOVES before you touch it!!!! That stuff will 'burn' you its so cold!!! You can usually get dry ice at Wal-Mart but call first. You can also look in the yellow pages under ice and someone should be able to tell you where you can find it. I estimate about 3 - 5 lbs. of ice (no more!) for a coolers worth of milk. (If you're sending less milk than that then you can definitely use less dry ice!) Break the ice up into a few chunks with a hammer or something hard (not your hands!) and put ½ of it in a layer in the bottom of the cooler. You don't have the break the ice into TOO small pieces - definitely nothing smaller than a silver dollar.
•Put several layers of newspaper over the ice.
•Put your baggies of milk into a few Zip-lock bags and wrap that in newspaper. (Make the outside Zip-locks are as airtight as possible - in case there is a leak the bags will keep the milk contained.) You will want to keep the dry ice from touching the Zip-locks or they will break due to the extreme cold!
•Put several more layers of newspaper over the newspaper wrapped milk.
•Put the remaining ½ of the dry ice on top of the newspaper and if there is space left over stuff it with just enough newspaper to keep everything from shifting around in the cooler.
•Put any receipts for milk storage bags, dry ice, cooler, etc on top of the newspaper, put the lid on the cooler and tape it WELL with either duct tape or shipping tape!
•Print out the HUMANMILK document (found in the files section of the Yahoo Group) on pink or red paper and tape it securely to the cooler.
•Drop the package off at FedEx on Monday - Thursday afternoon (No Friday shipments as they won't get to me next day!)

 

[MtBikeLover]

I had a super supply, work outside the home, and DD refused to take bottles so all my stash would have been trashed, but luckily I found someone at a milk bank who was looking for donors for her daugher. The milk bank wouldn't take my milk because they didn't need it, but her daughter took it. I gave her over 600 ounces of my breast milk.

I used styrofoam coolers, filled frozen milk bags to almost the top, and put dry ice wrapped in paper on the top. Then I put the top on, duct taped it shut and put it in a box. Fed Ex picked it up no problem. And I even left it sit out for a day waiting for Fed Ex and everything still arrived frozen.

 

[Ducky5306]

I just joined milkshare on yahoo.. I have oversupply and would love to donate to a mama in need and not a milk bank (altough i do like the free pump idea from a milk bank) I only have a single hand pump but still i can pump about 10-20oz a day depending on if i pump once or twice.. i am a WAHM so my DS hardly ever gets bottles so i'm builing up quite a supply in the freezer and i sometimes end up doing a pump and dump because we don't need the milk! anyways is there anywhere else i can find to donate my mama milk? thanks!

 

[MaryJaneLouise]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ducky5306 anyways is there anywhere else i can find to donate my mama milk? thanks!

You can make a post here in the BF challenges forum, or in the find your tribe geographical area.