donating breast milk

I am exclusively breastfeeding my 6 month old. I have had an abundant
amount of milk, to where I would "pump & dump". Today I realized, why
am I not donating this!!??

So, I called around and realized how valuable donating, yet how rare it
is. (The woman in charge at the hospital was paged immediately, so she
could call me back. She sounded so excited and kept thanking me for
such a wonderful gift!). The hospital works with a nonprofit
organization where I would drop off my milk, then they would ship it up
to San Jose. There is only one hospital, I found, in the San Diego who
does this.

I also found a company called Prolacta, with milk banks around the
country (and growing).

Does anyone donate their milk or have any information/comments??

I feel this is such a gift to babies who really need the benefits of
breast milk.

Graciesmom writes:
: I am exclusively breastfeeding my 6 month old. I have had an abundant
: amount of milk, to where I would "pump & dump". Today I realized, why
: am I not donating this!!??

: So, I called around and realized how valuable donating, yet how rare it
: is. (The woman in charge at the hospital was paged immediately, so she
: could call me back. She sounded so excited and kept thanking me for
: such a wonderful gift!). The hospital works with a nonprofit
: organization where I would drop off my milk, then they would ship it up
: to San Jose. There is only one hospital, I found, in the San Diego who
: does this.

: I also found a company called Prolacta, with milk banks around the
: country (and growing).

: Does anyone donate their milk or have any information/comments??

: I feel this is such a gift to babies who really need the benefits of
: breast milk.

Where are you. There are 8 milk banks in North America (7 in US, I in
Canada). They will usually arrange for shipping if you are too far to
to there. More information at www.hmbana.org.

Larry

Hi Graciesmom!
I also am exclusively breastfeeding my 7 month old, and am loving it! I
live in the San Diego area so I donate to Two Maids a Milking. They
have a website www.2maidsamilking.com. I hope that helps! Let me know
if there is anything else I can help with!

Chloesmom

Graciesmom wrote:
Does anyone donate their milk or have any information/comments??


Here's a list of human milk banks:
http://www.hmbana.org/index.php?mode=locations

I donated to the one at WakeMed when my first daughter
was a baby (I over pumped for her and made a one
time donation of 500 ounces - actually fedexed
them the milk in a container they sent me).

Yes, a very worthy thing to do, thanks for doing it!

Mary W.

Hi again Graciesmom!
Here is a link for the Prolacta Milk banks too!

http://www.prolacta.com/locations.html

Cheers!

Graciesmom wrote:

Does anyone donate their milk or have any information/comments??

Good for you for donating!

I could not donate because they follow the
WHO guidelines for donating blood and since
I've been in Africa after 1970, I can not
donate. But, I was able to donate to a
research facility, so I hope I did some
good!

-- Anita --

"Graciesmom" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am exclusively breastfeeding my 6 month old. I have had an abundant
amount of milk, to where I would "pump & dump". Today I realized, why
am I not donating this!!??

So, I called around and realized how valuable donating, yet how rare it
is. (The woman in charge at the hospital was paged immediately, so she
could call me back. She sounded so excited and kept thanking me for
such a wonderful gift!). The hospital works with a nonprofit
organization where I would drop off my milk, then they would ship it up
to San Jose. There is only one hospital, I found, in the San Diego who
does this.

I also found a company called Prolacta, with milk banks around the
country (and growing).

Does anyone donate their milk or have any information/comments??

I feel this is such a gift to babies who really need the benefits of
breast milk.


It's a wonderful thing you're doing :-) I'm not aware of any milk banks
where I am, but regardless I had pump resistance when my daughter was a few
months old so there wasn't any extra after that.
You could also try posting this at misc.kids.breastfeeding, I know there are
a few donors or past donors over there.


--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/

Thank you everyone for the information. (I'm in the San Diego area).
I'm in the process of the health screening and paperwork, then I can
begin donating. I'm so excited to be able to do this. Thank you for all
the great information

[x-posted to mkb]

Graciesmom wrote:

I also found a company called Prolacta, with milk banks around the
country (and growing).

I note that a gmailer with no usenet posting history has leapt in not
once, but twice in this thread to enthusiastically promote Prolacta.

Prolacta is not non-profit, no way, nohow. They have set up a nominally
"non-profit" collection arm, which they have chosen to name the
"National Milk Bank" - the entirety of the milk collected by the NMB is
passed on to Prolacta, which is 100% for-profit, privately owned and
funded by venture capitalists.

They reformulate the milk, because they claim neonatal specialists
prefer milk with a "nutritional label" over mother's "generic
breastmilk". They openly contend that their pricey brand-name milk is
superior to less processed breastmilk. The CEO's mission is to sell the
milk to hospitals for thirty days per baby, until they can, in her words
"tolerate other milk". Interpret that as you will. They also have an
active research and patenting programme, claiming mother's milk
components as their own intellectual property.

The kicker? They on-sell the processed milk for nearly fifty dollars an
ounce.

In contrast, HMBANA milk banks, the real non-profit network in the USA,
provide donated breastmilk on a needs basis for around around three
dollars an ounce.

Lara

References (for a starting point):
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.p...60327012622202

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/business/ci_3823090
--
www.tafkac.org
www.ozclothnappies.org

I have to say that I am not convinced on Prolacta's morals, but I feel the
need to nit-pick at Lara's post (sorry!)

"Lara" wrote in message
...
[x-posted to mkb]

Graciesmom wrote:

I also found a company called Prolacta, with milk banks around the
country (and growing).

I note that a gmailer with no usenet posting history has leapt in not
once, but twice in this thread to enthusiastically promote Prolacta.

Prolacta is not non-profit, no way, nohow. They have set up a nominally
"non-profit" collection arm, which they have chosen to name the
"National Milk Bank" - the entirety of the milk collected by the NMB is
passed on to Prolacta, which is 100% for-profit, privately owned and
funded by venture capitalists.

In your first link, it does say that the centres who get paid for the
donated brastmilk are then able to use that money to fund pregnancy and
breastfeeding classes etc :
"Karen Plevyak, director of the new Escondido clinic, said the revenue it
makes from selling milk to Prolacta will help fund a nonprofit pregnancy
clinic and free parenting and breast-feeding classes.

"Our goal as educators is to encourage moms to breast-feed to a year," said
Plevyak, also a certified lactation educator. "

I suppose the centre's may not all use the money for such good causes, and
we would only here about the ones that do.

They reformulate the milk, because they claim neonatal specialists
prefer milk with a "nutritional label" over mother's "generic
breastmilk". They openly contend that their pricey brand-name milk is
superior to less processed breastmilk. The CEO's mission is to sell the
milk to hospitals for thirty days per baby, until they can, in her words
"tolerate other milk". Interpret that as you will.

You are misquoting here. From your second link, the actual quote is:
"During the first 30 days, a baby under 1,500 grams should be receiving 100
percent human milk," Medo said. "By the end of that 30 days, hopefully, the
mom's milk has kicked in - or they can tolerate other milk."

This is not the same meaning as what you have said.

They also have an
active research and patenting programme, claiming mother's milk
components as their own intellectual property.

The kicker? They on-sell the processed milk for nearly fifty dollars an
ounce.
This to me is where the whole idea of Prolacta being a good thing falls down
too. $50 (although I couldn't find this figure on the links) is a lot of
money, especially compared to the ~$3 from a non-profit organization.


In contrast, HMBANA milk banks, the real non-profit network in the USA,
provide donated breastmilk on a needs basis for around around three
dollars an ounce.

Lara

References (for a starting point):
http://www.paramuspost.com/article.p...60327012622202

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/business/ci_3823090
--

Having read the links that you posted and Prolacta's website, I am in two
minds about them. I think that we are all agreed that BM is best,
especially for preemies. I have recently read a blog on a preemie, and I
was suprised to read that the Mum's BM was fortified with formula in order
to provide extra calories. If this is a common practice (and not being
involved in anything neonatal I don't know), wouldn't it be better to use a
milk formula based on human milk rather than a formula based on cow's milk?

Against this, I hate the whole idea of mucking around with such a
sophisticated substance such as breast milk. It has taken nature a long
time to perfect it - who are we to change it?

I also bet that Prolacta are doing precious little to help the mothers of
the preemies to breastfeed, as that would have an impact on their sales.

Suzanne