Donating Milk: Every Drop Counts

I'm not gonna lie, for a number of reasons I didn't get on all that well with breastfeeding Eden. I made it to 6 months (just) because I'm stubborn and that's the goal I'd set myself. This time around though things are going so much better with breastfeeding - Asher has a good latch, I was much more confident from the start, I feel awareness of breastfeeding in public has improved, and my sister in law gave me a fabulous breast pump. I'm proud of myself for feeding Asher just with my own milk for the 9 weeks of his life so far, and I hope I continue for much longer.

I've found expressing milk has given me such freedom, and I find it rather satisfying in a strange kind of way, to see the amount of milk I produce. Actually, I've got so much milk in stock in the freezer now for Asher that I realised a couple of weeks ago that I really didn't need to save any more. So instead, I've started donating my extra milk to a local milk bank - to be used for premature and sick babies. Donor breastmilk protects from infection and is easier to digest than formula, thus helping these little babies to grow and recover.

My first bottle of expressed milk for the milk bank

You can read more about donating milk on the UK Association for Milk Banking website.