Why I Donated my Breastmilk

My romance with breastfeeding started when I saw my sister Jul's serene, almost ethereal expression when she was breastfeeding her then 2-year old daughter. I was eight months pregnant with my firstborn. My initial plan was to breastfeed for only 6 months, as advertised by milk commercials, but with the help of my sisters, lactation counselors, and pediatricians,  I got hooked. Another kid later, I am still breastfeeding both of them.

Having worked for almost ten years, breastfeeding is a challenge. You would need to plan your day based on the schedule of your children. Mind you, children's schedules are ever-changing. I kept my supply – and sanity - by feeding directly as much as I can, eating malunggay, having three backup schedules and pumping like clockwork. It also helped that my employer supported breastfeeding. Because of this, I can pump up to 30 ounces per day – only a tad short of a 1-liter Coke bottle. Everyday.

The trick in increasing milk supply is to nurse from the breast as much as you can. If there is a honeymoon, there also is a babymoon. Use the babymoon, the first six weeks after giving birth, to let your body heal, and bond with your baby. Build your supply, or start stacking pumped milk in the freezer at least two weeks before going to work.

You will also notice that when nursing, you get hungry and thirsty at the same time. Indulge. You need the extra calories and fluids as your body produces milk! It also helps that breastfeeding is a natural weight loss regimen. I myself lost a lot of pounds just nursing my kids!

After having influenced my other sister, my officemates, my employer and our neighborhood labandera to breastfeed, I felt that I could do more. So I donated milk. I started donating milk when Ondoy happened. A lot of mothers did not have potable water to sterilize formula. I felt bad because mothers were panicking of not having water, whereas they can breastfeed directly without the need to sterilize anything. During those times, breastfeeding really helped a lot of babies survive. I even went to a barangay in Alabang, which was still submerged in water two months after Ondoy, to counsel mommies about breastfeeding. Food was being distributed to them using bangka. That’s how bad their situation was.

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I was blessed with an abundant supply of breastmilk which I stored in the freezer. According to the La Leche League, following are the guidelines for the proper storage of expressed breastmilk:

Colostrum (milk expressed within 6 days of delivery) – should be kept at 80.6 to 89.6 degrees F (27-32 degrees C), and must be consumed within 12 hours (Nwanko, 1988)

Mature milk

At room temperature
*at 60 degrees F (15 degrees C)- will last up to 24 hours (Hamosh 1996)
*at 66 to 72 degrees F (19-22 degrees C) – will last up to 10 hours (Barger and Bull 1987)
*at 79 degrees F (25 degrees C) – will last up to 4-6 hours (Hamosh 1996; Pittard 1985)
*at 86 to 100 degrees F (30 to 38 degrees C) – will last up to 4 hours (Igumbor 2000)

In a refrigerator
*at 32  to 39 degrees F (0 to 4 degrees C) – will last up to 8 days (Pardou 1994)

In a freezer
*In a freezer compartment located inside a refrigerator – will last up to 2 weeks
*In a self-contained freezer unit of a refrigerator – will last up to 3 or 4 months (temperature varies because the door opens and closes frequently)
* in a separate deep freezer at a constant 0 degrees F (-19 degrees C) – will last up to 6 months or longer

There came a point in time when my husband cajoled me and said he would feed my kids junk food all day if I do not do something about it. He was referring to a total of 724 ounces of milk in a two layer, 10 cubic feet freezer. No wonder there was no more place to squeeze in food - the entire space was filled with breastmilk and icepacks. Good thing his parents live only 5 minutes away, so we stored all our food in their freezer. I could have made ice cream from my milk because of the sheer volume, but did the second best thing - I donated some of my milk to the Philippine Children's Medical Center.

In donating milk to a milk bank, they pasteurize and catalog your milk so that they can give it to babies. Since my sisters also gave birth in 2010 and are blessed with a bountiful milk supply like me, they also donated milk. We have made breastfeeding a family advocacy since 2009, donating breastmilk to milk banks and to families in need. There is satisfaction in seeing the gratitude among the mommies and the babies.

Breastfeeding is free and we believe that giving it free to the world is what makes breastfeeding mothers beautiful.

For queries about donating milk, contact the following milk banks in Metro Manila:
 

Alay Gatas Headquarters – Human Milk Bank
2/F Philippine Children’s Medical Center
Quezon Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines 1100
Tel No: 924-0838 and 924-6601 loc 354
Contact: Dr. Fats Banez
*PCMC required donors to fill out a screening form and a Hep B and HIV test.

Philippine General Hospital
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
536-2867
0921-4535310
Contact: Nurse Tina

Angels Milk Bank
7212890
0917-8464987
Requires Hep B test.
Contact: Rosanna Henares Angeles

Fabella Milk Bank
734-5561 loc 156

If you are interested to donate directly to families, check out the Facebook page of Human Milk for Human Babies- The Philippines

Sources:
The Breastfeeding Answer Book Third Revised Edition, 2008. Mohrbacher and Stock.  La Leche League International, Illinois, USA
Milk Bank information/family donation information courtesy of Atty Jenny Ong. Visit her blog – Chronicles of a Nursing Mom

Photo from sxc.hu