'Why I chose to donate my breast milk'

Soon after Jess gave birth to her first baby, she ran out of freezer space.

"I was producing so much breast milk my husband couldn't fit the food in the freezer," said Jess, a 30-year-old mother from South Derbyshire.

It was then that she found out about the option of donating surplus breast milk to a local milk bank.

"I knew that poorly and premature babies in the neonatal unit were fed with donated milk. So I thought why not give them some of mine?"

Jess said donating her milk was easy, adding: "I phoned Birmingham milk bank and they sent me a blood test in the post."

She added that other than dropping off the blood test at the hospital, she did not have to leave the house to donate.

"They sent me all the bottles and equipment," she added. "It was all free."

She said her first donation was 10 litres (two gallons) of breast milk.

Jess described her 13-week-old baby Lucas as a "big chunky baby" weighing nearly a stone.

She added: "I thought he's got loads of my milk, so I'm going to help make chunky babies all over the nation!"

Jess's milk was transported from her house to the human milk bank Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital by Derbyshire Blood Bikes - a charity which provides a medical courier service for NHS hospitals across the county.

"The Blood Bikes were so good," says Jess. "They came right to the door and gave me the cooler bags they transport the milk in.

"I literally just had to take it out the freezer and give it to them."

"It created space for more food, actually. My husband was happy!"

A spokesperson from the Birmingham Women's Hospital milk bank team said: "We'd like to say a huge thank you to all of the generous women who donate their breast milk to help protect tiny babies.

"Donations are crucial, they play a huge part in providing the necessary care for our unwell babies in our neonatal unit, as breast milk is vital at protecting extremely sick babies.

"We know that many hospitals are in need of human milk for their neonatal services which is why we supply milk to surrounding hospitals throughout the UK."

On its NHS trust website, the milk bank at Birmingham Women's and Children's Hospital said it was providing donor breast milk to its own neonatal babies as well as to other hospitals across the region and beyond.

Donor breast milk, it says, can be offered to support mothers while they are establishing their own milk supply, or if they are unable to provide their own milk due to geographical separation or maternal illness.

Eligible donors would have established breastfeeding with their own baby and find they have surplus milk to their baby's requirements.

Blood tests are done before donations to ensure infections will not be passed on via the milk, and certain reasons will exclude people from becoming donors such as smoking or taking certain prescribed medicine.

Last month, Royal Derby Hospital used donor breast milk to feed babies on their neonatal unit for the first time.

The first batch of donor milk came from the human milk bank in Birmingham, which was delivered by a Derbyshire Blood Bikes volunteer.

Mark Vallis, Operations Manager at Derbyshire Blood Bikes, said: "It means mothers at the hospital can rest assured that the neonatal unit will be able to get milk to them. In all instances that will be milk from the Birmingham bank, delivered to Derby free of charge by Blood Bikes."

Jess said the move was "amazing", adding: "I see on Facebook groups mums asking for spare milk, and that's obviously not right. So it's really important they can get it from a safe source."

A spokesperson for the University Hospitals Trust of Derby and Burton said: "We offer expert advice and breastfeeding support to women, however, where expressing milk is not an option, donated breastmilk is a more suitable way to support pre-term baby's development.

"We are pleased to be working with Birmingham Milk Bank so that some of our families, with neonatal babies, can access donor breastmilk."

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