Donate your breast milk

The outpouring of support for these children that were going to be denied the best nutrition, breast milk, was amazing.

I received emails from all over the county, from people of all backgrounds asking how they can help this cause. A good majority of the responses were from mothers just like me, and many were breastfeeding mothers. They asked me how they could help the FLDS children receive breast milk. I was not certain in the case of directly helping each individual FLDS child, so I contacted several different agencies to see what could be done if the FLDS mothers were not going to be able to breastfeed or give their children their expressed breast milk. Thankfully, for now, these children will be receiving their mother's breast milk. But had the judge decided otherwise, it is likely these children would have been abruptly weaned and put on infant formula, which is far cry from being like breast milk.

One solution for these children, as well as children all across the country that are not able to breastfeed, is to receive donated human milk. The AAP states that next to mother's milk, donated breast milk is the next best thing. The recommended and safest way to donate human milk is to donate to a milk bank that pasteurizes the milk and screens each donor. But because milk banks do not receive enough milk donations to supply all the children in need, they must give their supply to the most needy ill children.

One way we can make sure that no child goes without breast milk, is to donate our breast milk to these milk banks. If the supply was there at these milk banks, then even healthy children without breast milk from their mother, whether because of maternal death or illness, a natural disaster (as seen with Hurricane Katrina) or custody cases (as with the FLDS children) could receive this vital nutrition.

Please consider donating your breast milk today. There is a thorough, yet easy, screening process. I spoke to the Mother's Milk Bank in Austin, TX and they said they are ready for you to contact them today.

http://www.mmbaustin.org/

Your breast milk will save lives.

If you are no longer breastfeeding but would like to help, please consider making a cash donation to your nearest Mother's Milk Bank (http://www.hmbana.org/index.php?mode=locations). If you would like to donate a breast pump or breastfeeding supplies to a mother in need or to a mother that will pump for the milk bank please contact me. If you are a mother in need of a breast pump please contact me as well.


Thank you. --Nicole