When my daughter was born at 23 weeks and 5 days, there was very little I could do to take care of her besides pump breastmilk. She couldn’t even have my milk through a feeding tube yet. Pumping was hard and having a micropreemie was stressful. Stress reduces milk supply. Finally, someone pointed out to me that the worst case scenario, if I could not pump enough, was that she would get donor milk, and that wasn’t a bad scenario at all. The fact that donor milk was available reduced the pressure around pumping which ultimately helped me become an overproducer. I couldn’t think of anything better to do with my excess of milk than to share it with other babies and families. My 1lb 4 oz “baby” is now a vibrant 3.5 year old. I was a milk donor but only because of the incredible gifts of other donors and everyone who makes the milk bank succeed.

– Milk Donor

Read more stories →