http://worldmilksharing.net Sharing Milk, Nurturing Community Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:59:13 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/wmw-2013-theme-life-and-love-in-every-drop/ http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/wmw-2013-theme-life-and-love-in-every-drop/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:33:10 +0000 admin http://worldmilksharing.net/?p=1514 Lily Mershon is a  26-year-old natural parenting momma, and her son Lucas just turned a year old on the 15th. He has had 14 donor mommas since he was about 8 weeks old, and milksharing has been an incredibly healing experience for her family. Lily had hoped to breastfeed for as long as her son wanted to; however, she believes God sometimes has different plans, and so she is very thankful for the amazing and selfless women who have donated their time and milk to feed her son. Her husband Kevin has been very supportive.  ]]> http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/wmw-2013-theme-life-and-love-in-every-drop/feed/ 0 http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/farewell-world-milksharing-week-2012/ http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/farewell-world-milksharing-week-2012/#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:46:10 +0000 admin http://worldmilksharing.net/?p=1505 What a truly amazing week.  The WMW committee couldn't be happier with the love and energy of the growing global milksharing community. Hundreds of pictures were submitted throughout the week,  you can indulge your eyes here, or read the dozens of heart warming milksharing stories. Don't forget to read our amazing  blog carnival, thank you so much Trevor for putting it together. 34 events were held in 9 countries, here you can find the photos that show the fun time these communities had. Thank you so much for participating. See you next year! The 2012 World Milksharing Week Committee]]> http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/farewell-world-milksharing-week-2012/feed/ 0 http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/en-tiffany-surrogate-moter-and-donor-canada/ http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/en-tiffany-surrogate-moter-and-donor-canada/#comments Fri, 07 Sep 2012 23:45:29 +0000 admin http://worldmilksharing.net/?p=1224 B's mom was an expert in the countless health benefits of breastfeeding and breastmilk, for both babies and birth mothers; unfortunately, she had a rare condition whereby her breasts lacked milk-producing glands. But with B being her second baby, she knew how important it was that she search for milk donors early, and on an ongoing basis to ensure B's first-year diet would be the best possible. And so B and I shared lovely visits every week or two, when I would bring a cooler full of milk, mostly fresh, some frozen, and nurse him for as long as he wanted. B's mom and I enjoyed wonderful conversations during B's nurse-a-thons, and I was so honoured that she welcomed me into B's life in such a special way. One day when he was about 10 weeks old, mom needed care for B, and I had the privilege of spending a day with him. We cuddled and nursed the day away, and he went home content (and very well fed!) that evening. The last time I nursed B he was just over 5 months old; he consistently refused the breast after that, coming to learn that his food came easier from a bottle, but I continued to donate to B, L, & S through my months of pumping. All told, I was able to supply S with her full diet through 8 months, and B & L with about 2 months worth of milk each. Being a passionate breastfeeding advocate, doula, and mother, I have never doubted the importance of breastmilk or the nurturing that can come with it; however, B reinforced all this for me in a very real way one day just recently. I hadn't had any contact with B or his mother for almost a year when I ran into them at a local park. B, just over a year and a half, took one look at me and ran into my arms, with no prompting from either me or his mom. I don't know many toddlers who have great long-term memories, but B sure thought he knew me, somehow. I'll never forget him, or the other little ones I had the privilege of milk-sharing for. I am immensely grateful for their parents' dedication to their little ones' health and overall well-being, and for embracing the milk-sharing philosophy and community alike.]]> http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/en-tiffany-surrogate-moter-and-donor-canada/feed/ 0 http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/olive/ http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/olive/#comments Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:59:38 +0000 admin http://worldmilksharing.net/?p=1208 *** This was originally posted by Olive Chan on her blog. *** Being the idealist that I am, before I had Alena, I imagined our feeding times to be like this: myself as a gentle, nurturing mother looking affectionately at the sweet babe suckling at my breast as we nestled together in the rocking chair. A week after we brought her home, that picture could not be farther from reality. Well, everything except for the rocking chair. It was 6am in the morning, she was thrashing about and crying, I was hysterical and crying, and milk was everywhere but in her tummy. Thus began the story of my breastmilk and how I stumbled into feeding a hundred babies. [Warning: This is quite long. I'm writing this mostly to so that I can remember it down the road. Read it at your leisure.] Alena was born with a very hearty appetite. This translated into very vigorous sucking (on her part) and very sore anatomy (on my part). After the aforementioned catastrophe of a morning, I realized that it was better for me to give up on the breastfeeding I had previously envisioned and take the route of pumping my milk and feeding her with a bottle. If I stepped back to look at the bigger picture, I knew that I did not want her earliest memories associating eating with stress. The decision to pump turned out to be a bigger blessing than I anticipated. Having my milk in bottles meant that anyone could feed her (including Tim, her eager grandparents and her aunt and uncles). This, in turn, meant that I could be free to sleep, or shower, or do my own thing. I suddenly wasn’t tied to her feeding demands. Sure, it required a bit of financial investment and a little more time to pump, store, and clean all the equipment, but the tradeoffs made it worth it. The biggest surprise, however, was the way God met me in this circumstance. From what I had been told, a lot of mothers struggle with producing enough milk for their babies, especially if they pump. But as I began to get into the rhythm of pumping, I realized I was producing more than Alena was eating. So I started freezing the unused portions. Somehow I heard that the BC Women’s and Children’s Hospital ran Canada’s one and only human milk bank. And that they pasteurized donated milk to give to premature or at-risk babies. When I heard this, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. At that time, though, Alena was only a couple weeks old and the nurses cautioned me that pumping sometimes decreases a woman’s milk production. So Tim and I thought it would be best to keep some milk frozen for Alena in case that happened to me. But God had something else in mind. One morning, as I was putting a bag of milk in the freezer and thinking about the milk bank, I felt an inner prompting. You love exercising your gift of generosity, right? I felt God ask me. Well, what if this is one of those times you’re being called to give? Can you trust me to provide all that Alena needs and more so that you can bless other babies with your milk? Yes, my heart replied. Yes, I want to trust You in this. So I applied to start the donor screening process. And though I can’t give you empirical proof, I swear that after that day, I actually started producing MORE milk! For understandable reasons, the milk bank has quite a rigorous screening process involving a phone questionnaire, written questionnaire, doctor’s report and blood tests for HIV and Hepatitis. Because of this, it took a lot longer than I anticipated for me to get through all the steps. About a month into collecting milk in our freezer, we started running out of space. There was one week where we had to intentionally only eat stuff from our freezer so that we could clear more space for the milk. Our freezer was quickly being overrun with little bags of frozen breast milk. At this point, God met me again. This time, it was through a couple friends of ours from church who’d had a baby about a month after we had Alena. I had heard they just got home from the hospital so I messaged them. A couple minutes later, I received a call from them. She had had a c-section so her milk was coming in slowly. They’d heard that I was applying to be a milk donor. Would I consider giving my milk to their baby? Would I?! It would be my honour to bless my brother and sister and their baby in this very intimate way. A few hours later, our freezer could breathe again. [Update: At the time, I had no idea that their baby would be diagnosed with Down's Syndrome and that he would require open heart surgery a few months later. It made the gesture of donating milk to them that much more meaningful.] In the end, three months would pass before I completed the screening process and was cleared to give to the milk bank. But what started out as a major disappointment in a time of my life when I felt like God was very far away, became a testament of His redemptive purposes and very real presence in my life. So that, my friends, is the story of my milk and how I ended up feeding many babies (perhaps a hundred, I’ll never know) in addition to my own. [Note: If you are interested in becoming a human milk donor, in addition to milk banks, there is a great organization called Human Milk 4 Human Babies that connects people requesting or donating milk.]]]> http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/olive/feed/ 0 http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/la-historia-de-roby/ http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/la-historia-de-roby/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:29:46 +0000 admin http://worldmilksharing.net/?p=1165 Tuve que aprender como usar el aparato por experiencia. ¡NO fue fácil! Al principio, sentí que necesitaba más de dos manos para manejarlo, pero pronto había aprendido en qué orden hacer las cosas para que el uso del SNS era un procedimiento metódico y tranquilo. Al principio, lo llené con fórmula, porque había hecho la paz con esta casi cierta eventualidad antes de darle luz a mi hijo. Pero entonces algo increíble pasó. Descubrí, a través de una amiga mía, una red de leche compartida con un nombre raro. (El nombre se cambió desde ese entonces a "Lactancia Solidaria" -- el cambio de nombre ocurrió en los meses mientras la estuve usando). Decidí poner mi solicitud de leche materna a la red y al pasar solo unas horas, una doula local se comunicó conmigo y ¡me puso en contacto con tres distintas donantes de leche materna! Estaba estupefacta con agradecimiento, alivio, y alegría. Contacté las donantes, y me encargé de recoger la leche. También encontré otra donante en un estado vecino (también a través de la red LaSo) que terminó donándome galones de leche materna para mi hijito. Le di de comer a mi hijo toda esta leche con la SNS (y mis senos, por supuesto), y así preservé la relación de amamantar que había añorado con mi primer bebé pero que tristemente nunca pude disfrutar. Milagrosamente, después de cinco meses de suplir al seno, mi hijo rechasó el SNS, simplemente rehusó amamantar con el SNS puesto, pero todavía quería amamantar. ¡No podía creerlo! Estaba preocupada al principio, porque él no tomaba biberones, y ¡todo su alimento venía sólo de mí! ¡Pero, menos mal, no perdía peso! Estaba aumentando poquito a poco, y era ya suficientemente grande que podía empezar a darle un poco de comida sólida (en puré). Así que lo hice, y entre eso y dándole el pecho cuando me lo pedía, él llegó al cuadragésimo quinto (45) percentil en peso a los diez meses. No es el bebé más gordo que he conocido, pero le va bastante bien. Le encanta amamantar y viene hacia mí para consuelo y leche. Para mí, es un sueño hecho realidad, y no hubiera pasado sin el trabajo duro y frustración de usar el SNS por tantos meses. Sí que valió la pena, cada momento de esfuerzo. Siempre estaré eternamente agradecida a las donantes que me animaron y apoyaron durante esos arduos primeros meses con sus obsequios desinteresados de leche para ayudarme nutrir a mi hijo. Pero la historia no termina ahí... Reciéntemente otro milagro ocurrió: doné 46 onzas de mi propia leche materna a otra madre necesitada, para su hijo de cuatro meses, a través de la red LaSo. "Pagándolo para adelante" es muy gratificante. Si estás leyendo esto como destinaria, espero que esta historia te dé esperanza de que algún día no sólo podrás nutrir tu bebé completamente con tus propios senos y tu propia leche, pero que también podrás ayudar a otro bebé necesitado con tu leche. A mí me pasó. Ahora, Roby tiene veintidos meses, es muy enérgico, saludable, alcanzando todos sus hitos, come bien y todavía amamanta.]]> http://worldmilksharing.net/stories/la-historia-de-roby/feed/ 0