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? milk bank / NICU

lemen99lemen99 member
in Preemies

I have a question girls!  I'm still pumping for DS but if you were not able to pump while your baby was in the NICU, how available was donated breastmilk?  Very available?  Or did you have to (or chose to) use formula?

Also, once you left the NICU, did/do you have the option to use donated breastmilk?

 Did anyone use donated milk?  Was it easy to get donated milk? Was there any paperwork or anything? 

Just curious. I'm hoping to donate a lot of milk when DS weans in the spring.
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Re: ? milk bank / NICU

  • Mrs. DestructoMrs. Destructo member

    Our NICU was kinda.... old.. I guess that's what you'd call it. The nurses there told me they had only used donated BM for one patient in their memory. I guess it's not common there.

     However, I think it is fabulous that you're going to donate BM!! I wish I had had enough (or any) extra so I could donate. Good for you!

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  • clyoungseyclyoungsey
    It was highly recommended that I use donated milk, but because I didn't I don't know how easy it is to get.  I do know that I personally have donated over 1600 oz to our NICU, which is a ton, since most babies don't take that much early on...so if one person does that, I figure there is a ton there.  I also know that our Milk bank supplies to all NICU's in MI.
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  • TriciaJoyTriciaJoy member

    I was able to, fortunately.

    It was available for 30 days. You had to sign a waiver, but I don't think it was terribly complicated. Our closest NICU friends used it because she just didn't produce enough.

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  • franciscazfranciscaz member

    How available was donated breastmilk?  Very available?  Or did you have to (or chose to) use formula? Not available

    Also, once you left the NICU, did/do you have the option to use donated breastmilk?  Not available

     Did anyone use donated milk?  Was it easy to get donated milk? Was there any paperwork or anything?  I really wanted to used donated milk b/c I don't produce enough.  It was not available at all where I live

    That is really cool you want to donate!!!!
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  • mek10976mek10976
    We kind of looked into donated milk after DS came home b/c my supply was so ridiculously low and we were hoping to give him as much BM as possible.  If I recall correctly, the websites we looked at listed it as kind of expensive and you had to have a doctor's prescription.  My husband is the one who did the research and he says that the national milk bank was expensive, but tested the milk for drugs, etc.  Then there was a woman in our area that connected people with women who had milk to donate, but there wasn't any testing, which made me nervous.  I didn't want someone who used drugs, drank alot, or had poor nutrition.
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  • NotJustAnAuntieNotJustAnAuntie

    We had talked about trying banked milk when Max had trouble with formula, but we'd have had to pay "retail" for it, which was about $400 a liter or something!

    The bank here is about an hour away; it's like the blood bank... it's a regional thing, not each hospital or anything. I would have loved to have been able to give Max breast milk...

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