Breast milk

A fed baby is a happy baby. Who cares if it's donated. I say do it!

When gotten from an official vetted source it's perfectly safe. Both my kids have had it at one point in their lives, my son when he was in the NICU and my daughter as she was trying to get up to speed on breast feeding. But it can be expensive as heck. Locally for me it is about $5 an ounce.

@Michelle I’ve seen!!! They want 100+ for 6 bottles of 100ml bottles

@Kendra Budd okayyy, this made me feel so much better!!

I'm in NYC and I learned that we have 2 milk banks but it's also quite expensive at almost $5 an ounce and they want you to have a RX from a doctor to get the milk from them. I think donated milk is actually wonderful. I understand it takes a lot to also get and make the milk but I wish they made it a little more financially feasible, especially for a family who may be really struggling.

@Leslie same I’m a FTM, I never knew if you wanted donated milk you had to pay for it. Until I looked it up because I’m going through it right now with my milk, what’s the point of calling it donated when they make mothers in need spend 100+ for it. I get it money wise they have to pay the mothers who donate it but what about mothers who are struggling with this problem. Is it just me or are a lot of us October moms struggle with milk supply?! I’ve seen way too many post able sudden supply drops.☹️

I have a friend who donates milk. She offered me her milk when my son was in the NICU cause I was having a lot of emotions and issues producing in the beginning. I know she's like a vetted donor. Maybe I can ask her some questions about it and get some information for you?

so as a mother struggling financially, like really hard i am struggling financially, the hospital near me only pays donating mothers $1.20 an ounce and sells donated milk for $5 an ounce. i was in over supply and have the ability to get back into over supply easily but i cut out pumping completely for the moment, and im in a slight oversupply but not painfully now at least. i wanted to get into donating bc i cant work and i want to provide for my home financially until i realized all my hard work only equaled like $200 a month. which i promise is better than nothing but also exhausting while exclusively breastfeeding my baby also. anyways, its kind of crap, like finding out locks for love make patient's families pay for the wigs from donated hair, crap like susan g komen and goodwill/salvation army. capitalism.. find a donor first hand if you're able too. i hope there's as many trust worthy moms out there like myself

@Zoe WOW that's absolutely atrocious! And they're totally taking advantage of moms like that! Disgusting as hell! Ugh

@Leslie yes im not sure about whether mothers here need a prescription for their babies to receive donated milk but let's all be real, donated milk is donated to mothers in need during some nicu experiences. once outside the hospital, mothers in need who still need breastmilk are forced to pay $20+ a can on formula (not every baby can take formula or vise versa), or $100 for 20 ounces of breastmilk. there are plenty of mothers who sell and donate, i believe my husband told me about an app called udders but i haven't checked it out yet, i cant vouch but maybe thats a place for moms in need to start

@Zoe yeah and the 20+ is a small ass can. I'm glad I qualified for WIC but I know that's not a reality for everyone. I wasn't even sure i was gonna breastfeed this time so when they did my benefits for wic I just got the biggest formula amount I could get (9 cans of powder) and over here my grocery store charges $25 a can and it's only 12.5 oz size.

I’ve donated mine with all my kids! It’s a beautiful thing!

@Leslie also same! im on wic but since im ebf, i get a little extra in food and no formula. the food benefits aren't as spectacular as they were ten years ago with my oldest but any little thing helps, if i wasnt so dire in need of the benefits I'd have them give me formula and donate that to moms in need bc the cost of formula is absolutely outrageous!! its terribly sad. so many grocery stores in my area have cameras/tvs in the formula aisle and/or locked behind plexi glass, its evil i swear

You can get donated milk on “eats on feets” or “human milk 4 human babies” Facebook pages and people aren’t supposed to charge for it. Normally you just pay them for the bags if they ask. We got around 400oz from a mom for free off there for our adopted daughter because her formula kept going out of stock and I was pregnant and couldn’t produce milk for her yet. Also you can ask around if you know any other moms. A friend of mine who has a baby a little older than our daughter donated milk to us for her and so did one of my sister’s coworkers. We also have a local organization near us that gives donor milk for free too. We also utilized them. If you have a lactation consultant you are able to see they may be able to point you towards local ways to get donor milk in your area.

@Zoe yeah i was planning on donating some cans to my local pantry or posting in my buy nothing group because I've been there before and know what it's like to not have baby formula. So freaking hard