Donor mom Casey and her peanut had a tough road when he came into the world at a pound and a half. But that didn’t stop Casey from helping other babies in the NICU to thrive.
“My son was born at 26 weeks at NAMC in Austin. He was 11” long and weighed one pound, eight ounces. Hours after my emergency C-section, I began pumping. Like most, I was getting just drops of colostrum, a.k.a. liquid gold, as they call it. And I saved every drop! At first, they were only able to use what I was first pumping on my son’s gums. He received donor milk for his first two days of life.
Then, after two days of persistent pumping, I discovered my milk finally came in! Being as tiny as my son was, he was only eating so much of my milk through his feeding tube. Therefore, I was pumping way more than he needed. I froze my milk and took what my son needed to the NICU when needed, but again, he ate so little, so I guess you can say I was overproducing for him.
One of my son’s nurses suggested donating to Austin Milk Bank. I was accepted as a donor, and my donations began! I kept a lot of my frozen milk because I knew the day would come when he would be discharged from the NICU and need it. He came home after 137 long days in the hospital. I had quite a bit of milk saved once he came home to include what I was still pumping.
All in all, I’m so happy I was able to donate my milk to help all the little babies in the NICU! For a while, I knew I didn’t have the freezer space for what I was pumping, so donating was by far my best option. I was so happy to help and glad my liquid gold helped other little ones in need. I will tell other mamas my story and let them know donating is always a great option if they are overproducing or just have lots of frozen milk. Thank you, MMBA, for always being so sweet every time I’ve reached out and throughout my milk-donation journey. :)”