Milk sharing

I have an amazing opportunity and I am SO happy about it.  I am pumping milk to donate to a relative's twin sons!  They were born at only 30 weeks, so they can't nurse yet, but when they do, it's going to take a lot of work to produce enough milk for both of them.  It is common for twins to have to be supplemented at some point, especially in cases like this, where their mom is establishing her supply with a pump.  That's the hardest way to establish a milk supply, and it does somewhat increase the odds that they may need to be supplemented.  Most of the time, these days, people use formula if a baby has to be supplemented, but that's not the best way.  Even the World Health Organization thinks it's far better to use the milk of another human mother if you have to supplement. 

The main reason I am so excited to be able to donate milk for these boys is because when Chai was little, and I had supply issues that I was working hard to overcome, a friend pumped milk for me to feed him.  It made such a huge difference.  I had supplemented him with formula before she had offered us milk, and he didn't like it.  The two times Chai has spit up in his life, it was after receiving formula.  It obviously was a subpar product, and I didn't want to feed it to him.  On Sarah's milk, he didn't have those problems, and he grew so strong and so healthy.  Ultimately, my hard work paid off and my supply got up to the level we needed it to be, so we were able to stop supplementing.  That's the end goal for anyone, of course, but when we did have to supplement, it was so great to have donor milk to do that with.  It's almost like I am passing along the favor.  It's just really cool to be in a position to be able to do it. 

To learn more about milk sharing, go to these sites:

Human Milk 4 Human Babies
Eats on Feets