Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
Saritamackita- Posts : 3
Join date : 2010-04-18
Re: Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
However, I am not a fan of milk banks in general. They charge a ridiculous, unacceptable amount of money per ounce. I LOVE LOVE LOVE Milkshare. I honestly hope that this website will become much more popular than going to a milk bank.
Best of luck to you and I hope the rest of your time goes more smoothly.
veggiegymrat- Posts : 46
Join date : 2010-01-04
Age : 40
Location : Arizona
Re: Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
WOW that is amazing and great that you have been able to donate 4000 oz!!! I'm glad you did eventually find some appreciative families!
mel chris- Posts : 26
Join date : 2010-04-24
Re: Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
My daughter started out on Milk Share milk and ended up needing to switch to banked milk. Why? She has a rare chromosome disorder that's caused many medical complications. She has corn intolerance so she can't hold down any formulas or foods or meds with corn or derived from corn (almost all formulas have corn in it). Her genetic makeup makes her gains weight slowly (she is almost sixteen months old and weighs 15 pounds) so she must have guaranteed higher calorie milk. We get that--24-calorie milk (standard is anywhere from 13 to 30)--from the bank, and we have assurance the milk is wholly safe from pathogens which is vital to her.
(My daughter could not learn to eat because she had congestive heart failure early on, and because I nursed several children before her, my breasts would not respond to a pump. She gets her food through a g-tube into her stomach.)
She has kidney issues, has gotten numerous urinary tract infections that required hospitalization, and we recently learned her immune system is deficient in a major germ-fighting component. I can't stress how important it is that the milk bank screens milk like it does.
Milk Bank milk has saved her life and saved her from undergoing needless stomach-tying surgery, which one hospital tried to do, refusing to believe breast milk was good for her, pushing formulas that kept making her vomit and have failure to thrive. Once she got on breast milk, she began to gain weight and stop vomiting. It is still her primary food due to several GI complications.
Milk Bank milk is expensive largely because of the bottles and equipment costs plus expensive blood and milk tests they have to make for every donation (one batch of donated milk may be fine while the next may not, so not all of your milk may have gone to waste, Sarita). But I can tell you that at least one of the major milk banks in the United States (there are only six) is not meeting expenses. Their hospital covers their deficit and the director isn't paid for all of her time. When it comes to a needy baby whose family has little to no money, they place the baby's needs over payment. It doesn't surprise me they often don't reimburse the bags. They often can't, but I can tell you with surety that they'd love to. And they'd love to lower the prices of milk to the recipient families, who cover all the costs of processing. What they really need is a lot of funding they simply don't have.
Donating to milk banks isn't for everyone, but milk banks serve a very important purpose with a huge need that grass roots milk sharing programs simply can't fill.
I implore all you precious pumping moms not to reject milk banks and not to stop sending them your milk. My daughter's life is only one of many whose lives rely on weekly milk bank shipments.
BB- Posts : 1
Join date : 2010-09-19
Re: Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
I don't know. Donating to a milk bank is a nice thought but how often is it that milk is dumped down the drain? I don't know if I would donate or not. Before accepting that much milk from one person, perhaps they should have an early screening process that tests just some milk, like a pp said...
mel chris- Posts : 26
Join date : 2010-04-24
Re: Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
veggiegymrat- Posts : 46
Join date : 2010-01-04
Age : 40
Location : Arizona
Re: Milk Bank Difficulties and beyond...
NHmaureen- Posts : 3
Join date : 2010-12-06
Location : NH
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