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Janie's Milk Donation Story

Donor Mom Janie recently shared her donation story with the Milk Bank. She learned about our mission from a friend who was donating and felt inspired to donate if it was in her future. Read on for more.


Milk donation was a long journey for me that started on bed rest - five long weeks of it - in 2016, pregnant with twins. Lucas and Lorraine were born at 34 weeks and spent 21 days in the NICU before coming home, happy and healthy. I pumped for those littles for 10.5 months. While in the NICU, I saw the fear in the eyes of the tiniest of little fighters - the micro-preemies. I learned many of those mothers aren’t able to provide milk for their babies. As a NICU mama, my heart ached for them. I wanted to help. Breastmilk is more than food for these babies - it is medicine!

I saw a post from a friend of mine who was donating milk to the Mother’s Milk Bank at Austin. With twins of my own to feed, I didn’t have extra, but I purposed in my heart to try to donate if I was ever blessed with another baby.

A few years later, I was pregnant with a healthy baby boy - just one (!!) - and knew now was my time to donate. I contacted the milk bank and made sure that the milk went to medically fragile and preemie babies - the ones I wanted to help. I started the process of getting approved to donate late in my 2nd trimester.

The very day my phone interview was supposed to happen, I had a medical emergency and delivered my son, Harrison, at just 28 weeks, 14.2” and 2lb 6oz. I had become that mom of a very tiny fighter! The fear is unreal. I pumped around the clock; it felt like the only thing I could do to help my baby have a good outcome was to pump, and boy did I pump. Within 2 weeks I had a healthy milk supply and it was well established by 6 weeks.

Harrison, on the other hand, started his feeding at just 1/30th of an ounce. I faithfully froze the extra milk, every day, in sterilized NICU bottles, labeled with hospital labels. I filled up the NICU freezer, then I filled up our kitchen freezer, then the one in the garage. My father in law bought us a freezer for our patio so I could keep pumping and storing milk for my son. In my heart, though, I desperately wanted to breastfeed him when he came home and donate all of my hundreds of ounces. I didn’t strictly count it, but it was about 2000oz (57 days worth of 35-40oz a day).

I am thrilled to say that after a 95 day NICU stay, he has been home for a month! He is healthy and thriving and an avid breastfeeder. I am so proud to donate my milk (and the months of around-the-clock pumping that produced it) - and with it alleviate the fears of those fellow NICU mamas.

I wish I could deliver a note with every drop of my milk that says “NICU Mama, you are seen. Your baby is loved. You are enough.”








Thank you to Janie and Harrison for sharing their extra breast milk and their story with us. Her experience and desire to pay it forward is wonderful, and we so grateful for their commitment to our mission.

Ready to help us save the lives of babies born too sick, too small, or too soon? Visit our website to get the donation process started.




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