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MilkShare
Thank you for requesting to join MilkShare! We are happy to have you. Inappropriate requests are not tolerated and forums are carefully moderated. Please read our guidelines for safer sharing at www.milkshare.com. If you are seeking milk, we request that you please help to keep MilkShare alive by contributing $20 via Paypal to yaaykhadi@gmail.com prior to posting. Thousands of families have used MilkShare to donate or receive milk for their babies. We believe that this community is preserving an age old practice and giving more babies the best nutrition possible. Thank you for contributing to our success!
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Bartering for Breastmilk?

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Bartering for Breastmilk?  Empty Bartering for Breastmilk?

Post by kozaloc Tue May 15, 2012 12:06 am

I know this is a donation site (no selling allowed policy), but what if recipients could barter (aka: trade) services or used baby items for donor milk? (such as used baby clothes or toys)
As a donor it would be enticing to see posts from recipients offering little gifts of kindness in exchange for all the time and effort us donors put into pumping extra milk. I know I could have used those extra 20 minutes to jump in the shower but instead pumped my liquid gold.
Just a thought for those women out there looking for donor milk. Even a bouquet of flowers saying how much you appreciate your donor would be nice.
The women who spent all that time pumping want to feel appreciated in one way or another. Maybe even giving the donor monthly updates on how your baby is benefiting from their donated milk.

What do you ladies think?
kozaloc
kozaloc

Posts : 16
Join date : 2012-05-10
Location : Middletown, Delaware

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Post by kozaloc Tue May 15, 2012 12:37 am

Recipents could barter services for breastmilk such as:
-Babysitting (for example: for every 100 ounces donated the donor will recieve 1 hour of babysitting)
-Mow the lawn
-Help clean up the house for an hour
-Wash the family car
-Walk the dog
etc.

Also, recipients could possibly offer to:
-buy the donor a box of diapers for their baby
-donate their child's used clothes
-buy them a gift card to Starbucks (enough for just one cup of coffee)
...I could go on for days with all the different kinds of nice gestures you can do to make your donor happy.



Random acts of kindness would be greatly appreciated for all the mothers who put in the time and effort to donate precious breastmilk to your child.
kozaloc
kozaloc

Posts : 16
Join date : 2012-05-10
Location : Middletown, Delaware

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Post by bhtimm Tue May 15, 2012 2:55 pm

I guess I never looked at it as "bartering", more like a gift of gratitude for something so precious that can't be obtained anywhere else. I hate to use the term "bartering" as essentially that is a form of payment - which the whole purpose of "donating" is not. In my past experience with 25 donors, certainly I didn't get everyone something, but I would make special tokens of appreciation to the donors I knew better and had an ongoing relationship with. (giving milk bags so the donor wouldn't have to pay for them). A few donors I even got pendants made out of *their* milk so they would have a memento of their own nursing experience with their child, using that milk. I did the same with my own milk, and mine was in short supply, so it was even more special. The pendant maker did something truly priceless: she made a free pendant out of 4 milk supplies (including my own), a gift I can hand down to my daughter someday, so she knows the gift of nourishment she was given from four women.

Bottom line: A donating mom should NOT expect anything in return, that is the whole point, but as a recipient, I naturally want to give a gift (which is something that does not need to be repaid - that is the whole point of giving) to show my gratitude speaks.

bhtimm

Posts : 102
Join date : 2010-01-04

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Post by kozaloc Fri Jun 01, 2012 12:38 am

bhtimm wrote:I guess I never looked at it as "bartering", more like a gift of gratitude for something so precious that can't be obtained anywhere else. I hate to use the term "bartering" as essentially that is a form of payment - which the whole purpose of "donating" is not. In my past experience with 25 donors, certainly I didn't get everyone something, but I would make special tokens of appreciation to the donors I knew better and had an ongoing relationship with. (giving milk bags so the donor wouldn't have to pay for them). A few donors I even got pendants made out of *their* milk so they would have a memento of their own nursing experience with their child, using that milk. I did the same with my own milk, and mine was in short supply, so it was even more special. The pendant maker did something truly priceless: she made a free pendant out of 4 milk supplies (including my own), a gift I can hand down to my daughter someday, so she knows the gift of nourishment she was given from four women.

Bottom line: A donating mom should NOT expect anything in return, that is the whole point, but as a recipient, I naturally want to give a gift (which is something that does not need to be repaid - that is the whole point of giving) to show my gratitude speaks.

That's so generous of you to make an effort to show appreciation to your donors. I just wish more recipients were as thankful as you. I think most recipients forget how much time and care goes into being a donor: pumping, sterilizing, mastitis, occasional blocked milk ducts, replacing pump parts, buying milk bags, sacrificing freezer space to store milk...etc.
I, myself, never asked my recipients to replace milk bags because I was DONATING from the kindness of my heart... but I think there might be more donors out there if recipients were more giving on their end as well...
whether its through a hand written thank card or a monthly update on how their baby is benefiting from the donors milk would be nice too. Just a thought.
kozaloc
kozaloc

Posts : 16
Join date : 2012-05-10
Location : Middletown, Delaware

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Post by bhtimm Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:43 am

Thanks for the kind words! The thing I like about the milk pendants (compared to a bouquet of flowers) is that they were made out of the donor's own milk and last a lifetime. I wish I could have gotten pendants made for all 25 donors but since it would have been a tremendous cost, plus the fact that some women had donated much and some little, I had some milk supples for months and some only for days.
I like to use an analogy from the Bible (no matter what your faith) that "sola fide" (faith) is the source of salvation (which is free), but is a priceless gift. Naturally flowing from this should be good works (faith without works is dead), but the works are not what saves a person. When you think about it, breastmilk is giving the gift of life (priceless) but is a free gift. I think gratitude *should* naturally flow from the recipient's heart, but yet there are some who exploit the system (all they may want is to not have to shoplift for formula - which is one of the most commonly shoplifted items). This may be an example of "faith without works".

bhtimm

Posts : 102
Join date : 2010-01-04

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