“Baby #4 has given me the ability to give back in ways I never thought possible. I’m consistently producing enough breastmilk for 2.5 babies!”

“When my son was around a year old, I felt the calling to donate to premature babies after learning that when fed a diet consisting of 100% human milk, they drastically reduce their risk of developing necrotizing enterocolitis, or NEC for short. I started to seek out milk banks in my area and found the HMBANA accredited Bronson’s Mothers Milk Bank in Kalamazoo. In order to become a milk donor for premature infants in the hospital, they required an interview, medical history of both mine and my children, and my bloodwork. Once you complete the process, they shipped a cooler to my front door; I filled it up, and sent it on its way back to their milk bank. Once it arrives, they pasteurize it and send it on its way to the hospitals around the state. I donated to that milk bank for a short time before finding the bank to which I currently donate.

Every box I ship brings me joy. As of now, my total ounce count donated is 32,759.5 ounces (255.9 gallons!)”

“We received donor milk when in the hospital with our first to help with his jaundice. That was so meaningful to me that I decided any extra milk I ever had, I wanted to pay it forward to other mamas no matter the reason they need it.

I was able to have such a strong milk supply and worked from home so had plenty of milk and easy storage for milk donation. I donated most of it directly to a family my lactation consultant partnered me with - this family had adopted a baby and wanted to provide breastmilk as much as possible.”

“While pregnant with our first baby in 2021, I always knew I would exclusively pump when I went back to work. Once my baby was here and we were in the fourth trimester, latching wasn’t going well. Overall, I struggled mentally a great deal for about a year. I switched to pumping earlier than planned, but I liked it. I felt like I had control, although I fell victim to feeling as though my worth was defined by ounces.With a surplus of breast milk in our freezer, I turned to donating it. After watching families suffer through the formula shortage in 2022, I knew donating my excess breast milk was my calling for this season of life. I found 2 families and donated to them for about a year, continuing to donate to other babies in between. After 15 months of pumping, I donated just over 9900 oz.

Now with our second baby in 2024, the difference in how I view pumping and am postpartum is night and day. While I have an oversupply again, it’s a gift I can provide to others in need. Worrying about our babies next feeding should be the least of our worries!”

“I found out my son was going to be born with Gastroschisis at my 20 week anatomy sonogram.

Our surgeon told me that it can be incredibly difficult to breastfeed Gastroschisis babies for a variety of reasons, but that giving them human milk gives them the best possible start to life.

Studies have shown that Gastroschisis babies that were exclusively fed breastmilk have less of a chance of developing NEC or other intestine-related complications. I knew how crucial it was for me to be able to make milk for my baby. But it was incredibly difficult on top of all the other overwhelming and stress-filled things that were happening while adjusting to life with a baby in the NICU.

When I started struggling with my supply, I reached out to a resource and was able to help my son receive exclusively breastmilk for almost 12 months. I am so grateful to the milk donor and everything she was able to give to my baby.”

“It was the worst feeling in the world.  I tried everything to get a supply.  She was in the NICU for 2 weeks. Pumped every 2 hours.  Tried getting her to latch but it’s hard in the NICU.  Even tried donor milk with a small tube alongside my breast.  

It turns out she had a tongue and a lip tie that was recently addressed, and I wish that they would’ve found that in the NICU. Really it wouldn’t have mattered because most likely the stress and having PCOS tanked my supply.   

I connected with two amazing women who have filled my freezer and fed my baby over the past three months.   

Our daughter was a month early so nothing prepared us for this part of not only a crap birth but not being able to produce.   

The selflessness of these women are beyond measure.

I wish that women knew that there are donors out there if they needed the help.  That there are resources out there and there is nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about.  I would have fed her formula because I know fed is best but I am beyond thankful for these women.”

“I am forever grateful to all donors and any resources available to parents struggling to feed or just wanting to feed breastmilk. I had Sean in 2019 and was incredibly lost with breastfeeding. I found very little support when I decided to exclusively pump. My eagerness to breastfeed and feed breastmilk would not waver. I was struggling to find the right pump and supplementing was becoming a very real need. One of my mom friends suggested I look at milk banks. I started to do as much research as possible and found that parents make gender specific milk. I went on a mission to find boy moms around the same age as Sean. 26 months they made it possible! We traveled to Maryland to meet an army mom no longer needing her stash - almost 12 hours round trip. We traveled 4 hours weekly to regular donors. At weaning, Seannie was gifted over 8,000 oz from 13 donor moms. Those moms are still present in his life at almost 5 years old. They cheered me on and I am forever grateful! A journey never has to be all or nothing. Please use these resources to make your journey yours!”

Hello! My name is Brianna McFarland and I am a milk donor with UC Milkbank and UCR health! And I am so excited to have the opportunity to share my story with you.

My daughters name is Lara-Jeane “LJ” for short and she is four months old. When I had her, I had a traumatic birth and the medical staff said that I may not even produce milk. A few days later, my milk in fact came in, and I quickly became an over producer. I started to get very overwhelmed with all of the milk, and I didn’t know what to do with it. I have always been exclusively pumping, and I got very overwhelmed with anxiety and loneliness in the process. I was very thankful to be feeding my daughter the liquid gold that she needed to grow, but it was just so much that I felt like it was getting on top of me.

Fast-forward a few weeks later, I heard from a Lactation consultant that I could donate my milk. Through that search process I found the UC milk bank team! It was so easy to apply to become a donor and I am so thankful for everything they do! They have given me a new purpose to pump and keep going, and it’s giving me the strength to go towards my goal of pumping for a year! We have donated about 2000 ounces to date and counting! 🤍

I love sharing our story to show what is possible for over producers like myself and for people in need of donor milk. We are thankful every day for this amazing community 🤍 (I say our story because it would not be possible without my daughter) 

I developed severe preeclampsia at 29 weeks and lasted a week in the hospital before I delivered my son at 30 weeks (2 lbs, 5 oz!) P spent 60 days in the NICU and was initially fed donor milk. I started pumping (round the clock with a Medela Symphony I'd obtained through a hospital research study) because P was tube-fed, and continued pumping when we went home because he was too weak to nurse for very long.

Texas Children's Lactation were instrumental in helping me establish my supply and I can't thank them enough for their compassionate and thorough care during a really vulnerable time. It felt like my body had failed P, so I pumped as much as possible to "make up" for that. It lead to an oversupply. Lactation gave me information on how to become a donor through Mother's Milk Bank of North Texas (and also gently suggested I didn't need to pump as much). After P was discharged, I began donating extra "bricks" through TCH's drop-off site and loved seeing familiar faces at the hospital and getting to update the LCs on P's progress.

P recently had his first birthday and is thriving (he's on the growth charts!) I'm continuing to pump, but at this point everything I pump gets donated. I'm not quite ready to wean entirely, because nursing to sleep during a 3 AM wakeup is a crutch I do NOT want to give up, and in any case: I remember so vividly those first days in the NICU, which were so full of fear and uncertainty. Knowing P was being kept alive through someone's generously donated milk felt like a hug from that anonymous mom. When I donate, I'm trying to pay those feelings of safety and love forward to preemie parents currently in the thick of it all.

My Lactation Journey started in 2014 as a super young mom – “a baby having a baby” – and not knowing what I was doing or how to feed my baby. Labor was long and hard and ended up with emergency help and in-need of C-section.  My 39 week 8lb 8oz baby went straight to NICU for breathing help – 24hrs later I was allowed to see him. He was all the way at the end of the hallway because he was healthy compared to the other babies – you know, the ones that fit in your hand, the ones that have so many tubes and wires you can’t see their faces. They called him the “monster” because he was the only one you could see from the door above his vent. I remember the first time I got to hold him, all the other moms in the room looking over at me with tears – they couldn’t hold their babies, they couldn’t touch their babies – they just sat there looking through the vents, glancing ever so slightly at me holding my “monster.”  I will never forget those babies, those moms. 

Fast forward 2 years, I had my second baby, a 7lb 14oz tiny little girl. After being “young and dumb” and “giving-up” my breastfeeding goals with my first, I made sure I would succeed with her. I did all the research, I took all the classes. I was what I thought was prepared. She came, and all my training went out the window. I ended up in a toxic Exclusively Pumping ritual and unintentionally self-created oversupply. It wasn’t this beautiful journey I had imagined. It wasn’t that peaceful mom smiling down at baby nursing image I had wanted. I was constantly washing bottles and pump parts, buying new pumps, storage bags and bottles. It was never ending and overwhelming. 

Upon my complaints to my local WIC office Peer Counselor – she mentioned donation. I immediately dived deep into researching it, as I do. I found Facebook groups: Human Milk 4 Human Babies, Eats on Feets, and the Mothers Milk Bank of Austin (MMBA). Intrigued, I saw the “I save babies” campaign with MMBA and flashed back to my NICU experience seeing the tiny babies from NICU – I immediately applied and became an approved donor. The process was quick and easy. They did everything for me – including reminding me my “why” of breastfeeding.

As a later term approved donor I ended up donating roughly 300oz to MMBA. I also ended up donating roughly 500oz to a at the time 9 year old girl with SMA type 1. I met her mom through the HM4HB Facebook page. She is now 16 years old and still thriving. 

Now 2023/2024, nearly 7 years later, we started our family over again and we welcomed another little “monster” boy. Born a whopping 9lb 15oz almost exactly 9 years after our first boy. As a now 6 year WIC Peer Counselor I knew oversupply would probably be again be apparent.  And correct I was. I found another informal mama/baby duo to donate too and again became an approved donor through MMBA again. We are now 12 months pp and have donated over 770oz to or informal mama and over 1200oz to MMBA, all while exclusively feeding my own baby. 

I am forever grateful for all 3 of my breastfeeding journeys and now being able to share them openly with other moms through WIC. It’s not always beautiful, it’s not always easy but it is always rewarding, one drop at a time.

Breastfeeding is what you make it, whether that be latching/nursing, occasional pumping or exclusively pumping, G-tube or SNS, breastmilk is liquid gold and quite amazingly lifesaving. 

I began my donor journey in 2021 after the birth of my first baby in November 2020. The birth itself was uncomplicated, but my daughter had jaundice and higher levels of bilirubin. She needed phototherapy, and we weren’t notified of this until near my discharge from the hospital. It was traumatizing for me that this tiny, itty bitty healthy baby needed to be separated from me, and at one of the heights of COVID, she needed to be under the light in the nursery (since I’d already been discharged) with limited visitation rights allowing only one parent at a time. Luckily, our postpartum nurse got us checked into the “family suite” which was basically a dorm room at the edge of the postpartum/nursery unit and I was called every time my baby needed to nurse since our goal was to exclusively breastfeed.

One early morning at 3:00am, I was called in, but it was later than my baby would have liked and she was SO upset that she couldn’t latch on like she’d been doing previously. In a panic, I began to cry and the kindest, most amazing nurse taking care of my daughter at the time, ran to warm some donor breastmilk they had on hand. My baby received just 10 mL to calm back down and I got her to latch again. That small amount of milk SAVED me in that moment! In a time of panic and experiencing that agonizing fear of not being able to feed my own baby, those 10 mL’s were EVERYTHING to me.

Following this encounter, I swore I would donate breastmilk if I ever had enough to give. I was able to donate over 1,400 ounces the rest of my first baby’s first year of life! It is such a rewarding experience getting to partner with a milk bank that was able to make such a difference in so many babies’ lives. I am grateful to continue to use my oversupply (now postpartum with baby #2) and have successfully dropped off a couple hundred ounces to donate with the same milk bank. I’m hoping to accomplish donating over 4,000 ounces by the end of this year. What a BLESSING to share this gift!

We not only received donor milk while my son (full term) was in the NICU, but once my milk came in and I realized I had a huge over supply, we have become milk donors and as of this morning (10/4/2024) I hit the 4,000 oz donated mark! I use my Ceres Chill (I have the demi and the OG!) on a daily basis and it's been a game changer in making sure I can get all my pump sessions in while I'm at work or on the go!