So here is my first real post and I’m going to talk about a very important issue that not many people here know about, human milk banking.
Here in Ireland we only have one milk bank, up North in Fermanagh, the Western Health and Social Care Trust formerly Sperrin Lakeland Trust. They collect milk from the North and the Republic, pasteurise it and then distribute it to hospitals throughout Ireland & the UK.
Who can donate? Any healthy, non-smoking, breastfeeding mother can donate. You can start straight after the birth (best to wait until your supply is established) or you can start any time you feel ready.
I didn’t start collecting milk until my daughter was 6 months old as I didn’t feel confident enough until then. I had thought this might be too old but they will happily take the milk as older babies who are recovering from surgery need it just as much as preemies.
What do you do? Basically, you call the milk bank, answer some questions (similar to the ones when donating blood). They will send you a few bottles to start off, you fill these and start collecting them in your freezer. You need to get a couple of blood tests done, by your gp or the local hospital. The hospital will do it for free, your gp may charge you.
These are posted back to the milk bank and once you get the all clear, they can use your milk. When you have about 10-12 bottles collected, call them again, they will send an insulated box (with more empties inside) which you post back to them.
You must post the box using Express Post in your local post office, the milk bank then refunds the postage cost to you. And then you start a new freezer collection and repeat the process.
So apart from your time (and your milk of course) there is no cost to you to donate. They send out a donor newsletter which is inspiring to read.
The milk bank does great work, so if you can spare some milk, it’s a great thing to do! Remember, as long as you pump at the same-ish time each day, your supply will adjust to account for the extra, so your baby won’t go short!
Let them know if you are veggie or vegan. Veggie mums are often requested for religious reasons & vegan mothers can be especially useful as their donated milk is free from cow milk proteins, which means that any preemies with a cow milk allergy should tolerate the milk well.
You can call either Ann or Vivienne at the milk bank on 048 686 28333 (ROI) or 028 686 28333 (UK) or email them at milkbank@sperrinlakeland.freeserve.co.uk
Some additional general information:
Western Health and Social Care Trust
From Wikipedia: According to a joint statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “The best food for a baby who cannot be breastfed is milk expressed from the mother’s breast or from another healthy mother. The best food for any baby whose own mother’s milk is not available is the breastmilk of another healthy mother” (UNICEF, p. 48).
“Where it is not possible for the biological mother to breast feed, the first alternative, if available, should be the use of human milk from other sources. Human milk banks should be made available in appropriate situations” (Wight, 2001).
Subscribe by email
[...] a look at my earlier post on donating in Ireland, Mamabear has lots of information on the options available in the USA and here’s a list of [...]
[...] confidence to know that I had enough milk to feed my growing baby, and enough milk to donate to the milk bank for several months. Thankfully, it never seemed to really bother littlepixie, she seemed delighted [...]
This is a wonderfully welcome statement. But I want to stress that the milk bank is in desperate need of donors particularly from the Republic.
I am the mammy of one of those unfortunately born too soon, but fortunate to be a recipient of Irish donor milk. My son was born ten weeks prematurely and I could not produce, despite my best efforts, much breast milk for him. I had an emergency caesarian and received eight units of blood and two units of plasma. Three weeks later I developed complications, and had an emergency hysterectomy to save my life needing ten units of blood this time. Gabriel received milk for approximately four months (I am told from approximately thirty wonderful mothers around the island of Ireland). My son is now over two years old, and extremely healthy, is a clear vindication of the importance of milk banks. A year before this son was born, I had another son, who was also born ten weeks prematurely while I was visiting some family in a small city in Canada. There was no milk bank available at that time in that part of Canada, and due to severe medical complications I was not able to produce enough breast milk for him. He was fed formula, and developed the dreaded Necrotizing Enterocolitus (NEC) and died after sixteen days. My first born was wonderful, and we have no guarantee that he might have lived with donor milk, but we do know that premature infants who are fed formula are statistically much more likely to develop NEC, the largest killer of premature infants.
In the past, we’ve publicised milk banks and helped recruit new donors, appearing on the Afternoon Show as well as contributing to internet and newspaper discussions. However, we’ve just heard that stocks of donor milk are very low once more, and anything anybody could do to spread the word would be wonderful and could potentially save lives.
[...] Fermanagh urgently needs more donors, especially from the Republic of Ireland. You may recall that my first post was about our milk [...]
[...] my first few posts were about donating breastmilk to our one and only Human Milk Bank[...]