Friday, March 9, 2012

Donating

I was at Le Leche League the other day, and the question of donating came up. There seemed to be the perception that you must have an enormous freezer stash to donate or that donating requires you to commit heavily to pumping.

First, there are many different levels of donating. The bulk of our donors have wanted to clear out the freezer space that their milk was taking up. I call them finite donors. They give what they have and then they are done donating. Usually they have stopped pumping for whatever reason. Often, they pumped because they thought they would need the milk, and for whatever reason (their baby wouldn't take it, they never ended up needing it, etc), they never use it. Instead of letting that precious milk go bad or dumping it out, they generously pass it on.

Other donors pump when they can for us and continuously donate for as long as they are comfortable pumping and donating for us. It's casual and, like with any donor, we're grateful for whatever they can give us. They just let us know when there is milk, and we pick it up or collect it to be shipped whenever there is enough of it built up to warrant collecting or shipment.

Then there are the donors who commit to pumping more frequently with us specifically in mind. These are the rarest types of donors in our experience, but the perception seems to be that this is how all donation works, so I wanted to clarify that.

Mamas receiving milk are grateful for anything you can give. Please don't let the idea that you must pump continuously and forever for us keep you from donating because it just isn't the case!