I donated breast milk today to a friend...

Cassian · March 2011

She has a 2 week old baby boy and has been trying to breastfeed him (she breastfed her first son for 18 months) but it hasn't been going well. She has tried everything, talked to me and lots of friends and 3 different LC's and her pedi. He has been losing a lot of weight, but not so much that the pedi thinks its an emergency. He will latch and feed, but isn't getting much milk cause his latch isn't a good one, so she is using an SNS with pumped milk to help. She can't pump enough yet to keep up with his hunger, and the poor thing is constantly hungry. They found out he has a bit of a tongue tie causing the issues.

She is very pro-BFing and didn't want to have to give any formula. I went down to talk to her and offer some help. I told her about how I had to supplement with Maya for the first 2 weeks and it wasn't the end of the world, just bought me some time to get my supply up. As much as it was important to her to have only breastmilk for her baby, she took my advice and changed her thinking, and she did end up supplementing a little today, but is still having trouble responding to pumping. I offered to give her some of my pumped milk for her son cause I knew how important it was to her, and she broke down crying. She is under so much stress with these problems and it all came to a head. She was so grateful. I gave her a couple feedings worth so she can build up a stash and get ahead of the game a little.

I would have never guessed in a million years, with my surgery and early BFing and supply difficulties, that I would ever make enough milk to be able to give some away. It felt good to help her nourish her child.

kittylove · March 2011

Cassian:

I would have never guessed in a million years, with my surgery and early BFing and supply difficulties, that I would ever make enough milk to be able to give some away. It felt good to help her nourish her child.

I love this part of the story. What a great friend you are to donate to her and her baby!

sommerrayne · March 2011

I wish I was closer, I have over 450oz in the freezer + am pumping 60+ oz a day....

I hope she is able to up her supply. Has she rented a Symphony yet? And those damn tongue ties!!! DD1 had that and no one listened to me. Poor thing starved for the first 13 days!