I decided that while I am busy being unemployed, I should do something useful with my time.  With the job application process at least temporarily behind me and my eye feeling better over the past couple of weeks, I figured I would take the plunge and start donating some of my breast milk.  Holden will be starting solids in just a few short weeks and will likely be dropping feedings as a result.  So, I figured I could pump once each day or every other day and start freezing some milk for preterm, low birth weight, and critically ill infants.  I wanted to donate milk through our local hospital, but a cursory search didn’t turn up any organizations accepting human milk donations.  There are many national human milk banks, and I finally chose to donate to Milkin’ Mamas.  My application to donate milk was approved today and I got to speak to the super nice coordinator over the phone.  I have to get H’s pediatrician and my midwife to sign off on H’s weight/height gain and on my health status, and then I have to have bloodwork done to confirm the absence of infectious disease that could be passed to the babies receiving the milk.  The milk is processed after it has been donated and then it is sold to hospitals to be given to the babies in need.  I am really excited about being able to help—for many of these babies, having human milk means that they recover faster and leave the NICU sooner.

There are some interesting (and thought-provoking) news articles out there about cross-feeding, or breastfeeding another woman’s baby.  On the surface, it seems like a horrifying proposition that is unsanitary and just….well, difficult for us to accept.  But when you read stories about the breastfeeding mother who traveled to Sudan and breastfed infants who were on the verge of death, the impropriety that our culture has placed on these acts seems trivial.  Certainly, the CDC is not wrong to warn against nursing other women’s babies as there are many communicative diseases that can be passed through breastmilk.  And maybe milk banks are our compromise.  We can donate milk safely and anonymously without violating any of the unspoken rules about how a baby should receive his or her nutrition.  Honestly, I would not breastfeed another woman’s baby for the heck of it, but if someone paid for my flight to Africa, I would nurse a baby in need without question.  But I am not hopping on a plane to Africa.  I live here in Vermont, in this frozen tundra I call home, with my husband, my son, our pets, my electric breast pump, and a freezer filled with bags of frozen milk, destined for tiny, empty stomachs….