demeter
16-01-2009, 18:01
This Christmas I gave someone the greatest gift I've ever given anyone. A gift that; boosts the immune system, protects children from sudden infant death syndrome, lowers a child's risk of developing asthma, diabetes, and food allergies later in life, and is great for bones, skin and teeth, to name just a few awesome facts about this gift. I gave a mother and baby my breast milk.
BB was diagnosed with hypoplastic tubular breasts during her pregnancy. Hypoplastic breasts are breasts which have underdeveloped milk glands. While she can make some milk, it is not enough to exlusively breastfeed her child. Rather than supplementing her own milk with artificial milk, BB created a community of lactation donors in her local city.
I wished to be a part of such a special group and contribute to someone else's life in such a meaningful and important way. But figured I couldn't because I live over 1370kms away. Then another woman told of how you could pack frozen expressed breast milk with dry ice and send it pretty much anywhere remaining frozen for mother and baby. I told BB she could have all the milk I could express as soon as I figured out how to send it across the country.
Like the other donors, I just had to get a blood test to make sure I had no diseases that might pass into my milk and onto BB's baby.
Learning how to express was no easy feat for me. I still haven't figured out how to hand express my milk, I almost cried from the pain when attempting to use an electric pump, and most of the time I can only manage to get 15-30mls from my manual pump in a sitting. But of course I persevered and got better at it, and most days I manage between 80 and 120mls a day! (In addition to breastfeeding my almost one year old whenever she wants, wherever she wants).
Like birth, breastfeeding causes the mother's body to release oxytocin, a hormone which elicits ejection reflexes such as the foetal ejection reflex that occurs during second stage labour, the ejection reflex women can sometimes experience during orgasm and of course the breasts' milk ejection. But for oxytocin levels to rise and cause these ejections, a woman must have a comfortable environment where she feels safe, has privacy and is able to relax. Knowing this, whenever I sat down to pump for BB and her baby I would try to get into the right frame of mind, focusing my thoughts on feelings of love, sex, rock and roll, England? Whatever it would take!
Other milk donor mums let me in on their secrets to successful expressing. These tips included pumping first thing in the morning and while your baby suckled at the other breast. Both tips helped a lot.
I discovered that expressing breast milk and trying to reach a certain numerical goal can pose a threat to a mother's breastfeeding confidence. Before expressing for BB I did not realise how hard it was to draw milk out of my breasts using a pump. Of course a baby is much more efficient at suckling milk from a breast and mother and baby's bodies work together to create optimum conditions for let-down, very different to pumping breast tissue with a piece of plastic. Still, there have been times during this expressing journey when I have thought to myself "oh my God, does my baby get any milk out of me?"
I remember being so proud of myself when I reached 30mls for the first time. I was so proud that I posted a photo of my jar of milk in an online photo album not realising that to most people it is a jar that is 70% empty, not 30% full. I was quite upset when this was pointed out to me. The support and positivity of my lactating friends and my partner have been wondrous during those doubtful times.
The flip side, however, was looking at a jar full of milk that I produced inside me, and expressed by my efforts, which was very affirming. "Look at all that milk!", "I made every last drop", "My child lives on nothing but this!", "BB's baby will live on this (for a short time)". The thrill of watching my jar become more and more full was fun.
The jar I stored my milk in was an old mustard jar which had been sterilised. At the end of a sitting with my pump I emptied my expressed gold into the old mustard jar and kept it cool at the back of the fridge. Here it would keep for three days. When the jar was full or close to full (or when the milk had been in the fridge for two days) I would pour the milk into a snap lock bag, seal it and place it in my freezer. Before using the snap lock bag I would label it with my name, the date the milk was expressed and the date it was frozen. In my freezer the milk was safe for BB's baby for three months if need be.
BB sent me an esky and recommended stacking the breast milk in the esky with a bag of ice usually brought from convenience stores for parties (turned out dry ice was not considered safe for couriering). She arranged to have a local courier come to my house and pack the esky for delivery.
The courier arrived on the morning we had arranged (once I had 1litre). We sealed the esky shut and then the delivery man began taping up the esky, wrapping it in bubble wrap, putting it inside a garbage bag and taping it again. Then I farewelled my milk and he took it to the airport to fly to BB.
The following morning I received an email from BB thanking me for my gift. My milk had arrived safely. Aside from two partially thawed bags, the milk remained frozen and safe to keep in her freezer for another couple of months. The two less frozen bags were moved to the fridge to finish thawing out before becoming BB's baby's first meal from my breast.
There is nothing quite like the honour of being able to give a mother and child a gift that means so much, and that can do so much for the heatlh and well-being of another person. I hope to oneday meet BB in person and the child I fed from 1370+kms way :D
Photos
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3175674048/)
Me expressing (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3175674048/)
My milk jar (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174841843/)
Expressing on christmas morning (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3175348003/)
Freezer staxked with breast milk (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174872415/)
Breast milk on the rocks (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174823721/)
Ready to fly (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174823711/)
In March I plan to have 3 litres to send and my best friend is doing the same :)
ETA: If you can't see the photos click here (http://www.ilithyiainspired.com/2009/01/very-personal-gift.html) to see the blog entry of this story...the pics appear there.)
BB was diagnosed with hypoplastic tubular breasts during her pregnancy. Hypoplastic breasts are breasts which have underdeveloped milk glands. While she can make some milk, it is not enough to exlusively breastfeed her child. Rather than supplementing her own milk with artificial milk, BB created a community of lactation donors in her local city.
I wished to be a part of such a special group and contribute to someone else's life in such a meaningful and important way. But figured I couldn't because I live over 1370kms away. Then another woman told of how you could pack frozen expressed breast milk with dry ice and send it pretty much anywhere remaining frozen for mother and baby. I told BB she could have all the milk I could express as soon as I figured out how to send it across the country.
Like the other donors, I just had to get a blood test to make sure I had no diseases that might pass into my milk and onto BB's baby.
Learning how to express was no easy feat for me. I still haven't figured out how to hand express my milk, I almost cried from the pain when attempting to use an electric pump, and most of the time I can only manage to get 15-30mls from my manual pump in a sitting. But of course I persevered and got better at it, and most days I manage between 80 and 120mls a day! (In addition to breastfeeding my almost one year old whenever she wants, wherever she wants).
Like birth, breastfeeding causes the mother's body to release oxytocin, a hormone which elicits ejection reflexes such as the foetal ejection reflex that occurs during second stage labour, the ejection reflex women can sometimes experience during orgasm and of course the breasts' milk ejection. But for oxytocin levels to rise and cause these ejections, a woman must have a comfortable environment where she feels safe, has privacy and is able to relax. Knowing this, whenever I sat down to pump for BB and her baby I would try to get into the right frame of mind, focusing my thoughts on feelings of love, sex, rock and roll, England? Whatever it would take!
Other milk donor mums let me in on their secrets to successful expressing. These tips included pumping first thing in the morning and while your baby suckled at the other breast. Both tips helped a lot.
I discovered that expressing breast milk and trying to reach a certain numerical goal can pose a threat to a mother's breastfeeding confidence. Before expressing for BB I did not realise how hard it was to draw milk out of my breasts using a pump. Of course a baby is much more efficient at suckling milk from a breast and mother and baby's bodies work together to create optimum conditions for let-down, very different to pumping breast tissue with a piece of plastic. Still, there have been times during this expressing journey when I have thought to myself "oh my God, does my baby get any milk out of me?"
I remember being so proud of myself when I reached 30mls for the first time. I was so proud that I posted a photo of my jar of milk in an online photo album not realising that to most people it is a jar that is 70% empty, not 30% full. I was quite upset when this was pointed out to me. The support and positivity of my lactating friends and my partner have been wondrous during those doubtful times.
The flip side, however, was looking at a jar full of milk that I produced inside me, and expressed by my efforts, which was very affirming. "Look at all that milk!", "I made every last drop", "My child lives on nothing but this!", "BB's baby will live on this (for a short time)". The thrill of watching my jar become more and more full was fun.
The jar I stored my milk in was an old mustard jar which had been sterilised. At the end of a sitting with my pump I emptied my expressed gold into the old mustard jar and kept it cool at the back of the fridge. Here it would keep for three days. When the jar was full or close to full (or when the milk had been in the fridge for two days) I would pour the milk into a snap lock bag, seal it and place it in my freezer. Before using the snap lock bag I would label it with my name, the date the milk was expressed and the date it was frozen. In my freezer the milk was safe for BB's baby for three months if need be.
BB sent me an esky and recommended stacking the breast milk in the esky with a bag of ice usually brought from convenience stores for parties (turned out dry ice was not considered safe for couriering). She arranged to have a local courier come to my house and pack the esky for delivery.
The courier arrived on the morning we had arranged (once I had 1litre). We sealed the esky shut and then the delivery man began taping up the esky, wrapping it in bubble wrap, putting it inside a garbage bag and taping it again. Then I farewelled my milk and he took it to the airport to fly to BB.
The following morning I received an email from BB thanking me for my gift. My milk had arrived safely. Aside from two partially thawed bags, the milk remained frozen and safe to keep in her freezer for another couple of months. The two less frozen bags were moved to the fridge to finish thawing out before becoming BB's baby's first meal from my breast.
There is nothing quite like the honour of being able to give a mother and child a gift that means so much, and that can do so much for the heatlh and well-being of another person. I hope to oneday meet BB in person and the child I fed from 1370+kms way :D
Photos
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3175674048/)
Me expressing (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3175674048/)
My milk jar (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174841843/)
Expressing on christmas morning (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3175348003/)
Freezer staxked with breast milk (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174872415/)
Breast milk on the rocks (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174823721/)
Ready to fly (http://www.flickr.com/photos/freebirthingfamily/3174823711/)
In March I plan to have 3 litres to send and my best friend is doing the same :)
ETA: If you can't see the photos click here (http://www.ilithyiainspired.com/2009/01/very-personal-gift.html) to see the blog entry of this story...the pics appear there.)