I'm a teacher and I got lucky enough to give birth to that perfectly timed “late-spring teacher baby” (summer break=extended maternity leave!) I heard from a lot of friends who struggled to keep their milk supply going once the school year started, so I did everything I could to boost mine over the summer—I started pumping and hand expressing weeks before I went back to work.
Well, when the school year started, I found out I'd done a little too good a job. The baby didn't like the bottle much, so he would nurse all night and all weekend (thus further boosting my supply) but take very little during the day. I had a great freezer stash but never touched it—most days I was freezing ten or twelve ounces more than he was drinking. After a few weeks of hoarding, I was running out of freezer space.
That was when I heard about Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin. I could see my own baby growing and thriving on mama's milk, and it seemed like a profound blessing to be able to share that joy with other families too. Pumping milk at school stopped feeling like an anxiety-inducing chore and started feeling like a form of service.
Instead of letting my supply trail off, I took pleasure in keeping it as high as possible (more hand-expressing!) because I knew I was helping other babies with it. This turned out to be a good thing for my own baby as well, who's still happily nursing at fifteen months. (Here he is, sending his love to all his milk-brothers and milk-sisters!)
The donation period for MMBA ends at twelve months, but I'm already looking forward to becoming a donor mom again if we are blessed with another baby—sharing milk is a great way to keep up your own milk supply and your pumping morale as well as helping others!
Well, when the school year started, I found out I'd done a little too good a job. The baby didn't like the bottle much, so he would nurse all night and all weekend (thus further boosting my supply) but take very little during the day. I had a great freezer stash but never touched it—most days I was freezing ten or twelve ounces more than he was drinking. After a few weeks of hoarding, I was running out of freezer space.
That was when I heard about Mothers’ Milk Bank at Austin. I could see my own baby growing and thriving on mama's milk, and it seemed like a profound blessing to be able to share that joy with other families too. Pumping milk at school stopped feeling like an anxiety-inducing chore and started feeling like a form of service.
Instead of letting my supply trail off, I took pleasure in keeping it as high as possible (more hand-expressing!) because I knew I was helping other babies with it. This turned out to be a good thing for my own baby as well, who's still happily nursing at fifteen months. (Here he is, sending his love to all his milk-brothers and milk-sisters!)
The donation period for MMBA ends at twelve months, but I'm already looking forward to becoming a donor mom again if we are blessed with another baby—sharing milk is a great way to keep up your own milk supply and your pumping morale as well as helping others!
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