Milk anybody?
So you have tons of extra milk left, more than your baby will ever need. You feel bad about throwing it away. But you can only store it for so long. What can you do?
Did you know that there are thousands of premature babies that can use your milk? They were born pre-term so their mommies may not have milk for them yet, and their tiny bodies cannot digest formula that full-term babies can.
How can you help?
There are Human milk banking associations throughout the US. These are non-profit organizations that collect, pasteurize, and send milk to hospitals with babies that need breast milk. If you have milk to donate, you can call them, schedule a screening interview with them where they judge your diet/health habits (smoker, drinker, HIV positive, etc.). You might also need a doctor's certificate certifying your good health, and a temperature reading from your freezer to prove that the milk was stored at the right temperature. Once you pass, you will be sent a milk collection kit in which you can put your milk and send to the milk bank.
The process is lengthy, but if you think of the life-saving elixir that you can provide to babies, it is well-worth the effort.
There are some for-profit organizations that collect donated milk, use it to prepare special formulas for pre-mature babies and sell them, without providing any information to the donors. You might want to watch out.
