Got Milk? - How a Village Saved My Babies

"Ora na azu nwa ~ It takes a village to raise a child"

African proverb

When my twins were born they were perfect, beautiful, and born to a family who had so much love to give. I wish their beginning could have been easier but that is not my girl's birth story. Their lives began too early from the womb and from day one we had problems getting them to eat well. They had feeding tubes until about four months old. Even when they left the NICU they came home with feeding tubes and were not gaining weight normally.

We discovered after some tests that the girls both had allergies to ingredients found in all formulas. This is why they were not gaining weight, their bodies could not absorb anything if it was under attack from allergies. Following my instincts and the medical advice from my doctor I tried to breastfeed. But the girls had horrible nippling issues and were used to a bottle. Pumping alone would not make my milk come in and the result was never enough milk for my medically fragile babies. Desperate I turned to my doctor for advice. He gave us a prescription for the local Milk Bank and I called them as soon as we arrived at home. Even with a prescription from the doctor stating that breast milk is medically necessary because of my twins allergies to formula they still wanted to charge us $3 an ounce plus the cost of overnight shipping in a refrigerator box. At that point my twins were consuming 60 ounces a day which would cost us $180 a day (plus the cost of shipping which was about $50). They did not take insurance and there was no way we could pay that high cost.

Our first full freezer

I have to admit at this point I panicked. I had to find a solution fast. This time I turned to the Internet and found two organizations that put mothers in touch with each other for milk sharing. I asked our doctor about the safety of doing such an adventure and he reassured me that breast milk, even from another mother, is perfectly healthy as long as we knew some medical background. What I quickly discovered is that the type of mother who is willing to donate her milk is the type of woman who fully discloses any information you would need to make an informed choice. I put a few ads up and said some prayers. Quickly women from all over our state responded to me offering their freezer stash of liquid gold. We packed up our girls and traveled to these milky destinations, sometimes hundreds of miles away.

Over the next year I would form friendships that have lasted to this day. I am so grateful to these women for saving my children but also welcoming us into their lives. These women that I once met to transfer frozen milk from her cooler to mine are now some of my close friends. Our children have grown up together, we have shared birthday parties, births of new babies and holidays. 

With the birth of our third child coming any day I hope and pray that I can donate back to the universe. The African proverb is true, sometimes it does take a village to raise a child. For our family it took a village to feed our children! Seeing how milk sharing blessed our lives I can only imagine how amazing it will be to bless someone else. I hope that this blog post encourages you to donate your freezer stash, if you should decide to do so I have listed the organizations I have used below.

Human Milk for Human Babies - a Facebook group, you can post there if you are able to donate or need donations. 

Eats on Feets - also a Facebook group

Parent's Place - a local group that provides support and classes, for locals check out their Yahoo group to post about milk sharing.

To all the mothers who joined our "village" I cannot thank you enough. I hope you all know how much we love and appreciate you!