Donating breastmilk for premature/sick babies

by **stickytoffee** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 1:53 pm

Hi Girls,
Not sure if enough people know this but there is a breast feeding bank in ireland who you can donate BM to. its used to help premature babies and sick babies that need to stay in hospital/incubators after they're born. I just rang them up to see about becoming a donor - ive been expressing for a couple of weeks and earlier this week i got to thinking what the hell am i stockpiling all this frozen bm for! :hyper:

DS is 6wks old now and on BM during the day and formula for night feeds. he's put on nearly a kg since his birthweight so is thriving - he wont need all the expressed milk i have.

Anyway, i just called them and it all sounds really good. they asked me questions for about 10 mins about health/partners health and are now sending me out some bottles. they are 7oz pre sterilised bottles and when u express into them you store them in freezer. when u have 10-12 bottles ready you call them and they organise express post system and you send them off. There's no time limit or anything, you get 6 bottles first and if things are going ok you give them a call and they'll send you out more. You also need to get PHN to take blood from you. figure if i can do this even once it'll help some babies. I posted this on the october2010 post but wanted to share with the non october mums. Has anyone else had experience with sperrinlakeland before? Im suprised they dont tell you about this in hospitals/ante natal classes - it sounds like a wonderful service. Another great way to pay it forward to those LO's who are born and need some extra help

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=9550
from ireland 048 686 28333
from Northern Ireland 028 686 28333)
email milkbank@sperrinlakeland.freeserve.co.uk

by **neeov** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:11 pm

Would you not give your LO the expressed milk instead of the formula?

bazinga · by **bazinga** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:14 pm

I think this is a wonderful thing to do Sticky toffee! I seen a documentary on this a few years ago and both me and H2B said that if we are lucky enough to have little ones we would do this (well I would, his moobs aren't up to expressing yet :o0

)

by **sept09baby** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:46 pm

Sounds like a great idea. Have never heard of it though or seen it advertised :o(

I'd imagine it would be so successful if it was advertised in the hospitals and by the PHNs

by **round two** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:50 pm

Wow,

I didn't realise you could do this. I had my little girl early last year in Holles st and we spent a month there. I was lucky and had very good milk as she was my second and i had fed my son.

I had asked when in the NICU and they were not on for giving milk to other babies.

They also told me that mothers of premie babies actually have different milk as their bodies work on overdrive and you produce more fats and lipids in your milk to help the baby grown.

If there was not enough milk from the mum they had a special aptimal formula and also a glucose formula that they used in the tubes to feed the little ones.

Wish I had known about this cause I produced way more than i could use.

by **stickytoffee** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:52 pm

hahahaha deeo

neeov wrote:Would you not give our LO the expressed milk instead of the formula?

neeov - he was exclusively BM for the first 4 weeks. Then we started giving him formula for 11pm and middle of night feed to help fill him up more/sleep longer. We like it as DH gets to do the feed at 11pm (he loves feeding DS and its nice bonding time) and i do the 3/4am feed - its much easier with formula as we're using aptimal ready mixed milk which doesnt need to be stored in fridge. i just have the bottle by my bed in the bottle warmer and when he wakes up we give him that. if the bottle isnt enough for him then i feed him more BM. He can drink the bottle in about 10mins whereas BF would take 30mins so its more sleep for me too. he is getting plenty of BM during all his other feeds so i have enough to donate to other babies that need it more.

sept09baby - i cant understand why its not advertised either! their supply doesnt fill their demand so dont know why they dont up the advertising. even verbally in antenatal classes or from the midwives in hosptial - it wouldnt need a big budget or anything! i find its the same with platelet donation. huge demand but no-one to tell you about it!

by **neeov** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 5:15 pm

A bottle of chilled breastmilk would keep for 8 hours in one of those lunch box sized cool bags with a cool block beside the bed.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/milkstorage.html

by **neeov** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 5:17 pm

I think you are being very nice donating your milk, but I wanted you to have the information about giving it to your baby instead of formula.

by **supercat** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 6:31 pm

A friend told me you can only donate till your baby is 6 months?

by **alton** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 6:44 pm

supercat wrote:A friend told me you can only donate till your baby is 6 months?

I was just going to ask about that.

by **stickytoffee** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 7:03 pm

tnx neeov. usefull link there

supercat+alton - duno about 6month limit....she never mentioned this. ill check if it says it in the pack when i get it and let u know. duno why there would be upper limit tho???

by **neeov** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 8:08 pm

The milk changes as the baby gets older, maybe they can't give older baby milk to newborns?

by **poster** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 8:59 pm

I think theres something about you can't donate if you've had the anti-d injection. I wanted to donate as my little pudding was in nicu when born. I used to see all the other tiny little babies when I was visiting my pudding and my heart would break for them. Some of the babies are so small, pure miracles. God love them.

by **pigeonwife** » Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:14 pm

Interesting post - thanks to everyone for all info given.

by **beaneybaby** » Mon Nov 29, 2021 10:53 am

stickytoffee,

I rang this morning and they are sending out the starter pack to me.
Just wanted to say thanks for the link and I hope I'm able to help out some babies with my oversupply! Tis wonderful to think you'd be helping out some of the tiny babies. :lvs

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