Would you use someone else's EBM??

ahhhh the BW/BG mix up curse strikes again! hehehe - good thing neither of us gets offended by it Deb - far too many ways that we're similar that we're STILL working out! unfortunately for BW her attempts to BF Sam were unsuccessful even though she tried for weeks to establish a supply - it just wasn't working. Hugs BW - you're one of the chickies i'd have travelled to help if the timing of our bubba births were reversed!

Deb - you mentioned having formula on hand "just in case" - and it's something i know i contemplated before Emerald was born - but i wasn't going to have it in my house cos it would be too easy to let stress/emotions or whatever get the better of me. my "plan" had been to have a couple of the individual sachets at mum's place (20k's away) in case we needed it - it would have to be desperation that would drive me to going that far to get it. but i decided against the safety net factor. i figure i can lay in bed with my girl all night and just let her feed if need be. it's emotionally draining and physically not great when she's so worked up she won't attach properly (she did this last night) and the idea of the "convenience" of handing her to daddy to feed was definitely on my mind, but i had no choice - we had no alternative and i just had to suck it up! we did eventually get her to feed properly and sleep but it was a very trying night! had there been formula in the house i may have caved but i've fought every step of the way to do the BF thing for my girl and i'm glad i didn't have that option

i'm slowly working on building a village of similarly minded people - i know there were five little girls born here in town within a few weeks, so i'm hoping we can get a mothers group happening. it's just very difficult for me to move out of my existing (and very supportive) village which consists of older people or those my age who've had no trouble having children so their kids are older, into a new group of people. i know i have to do it - for Emerald as much as for me - it's just making that move! for a shy person, it's damned hard to break out of what you know ...

The issue with "premmie" milk is to do with the fact that premmie milk is higher in the nutrients that premmies need, and lower in some other things which can actually be not so good for premmies. Therefore premmie bm is absolutely the safest thing for premmies, and the best thing for their growth and development. Any other bm is the next best thing, and ABM is the least desirable option, but obviously better than no milk at all.

As I understand it, the milk bank on the Gold Coast (when it has enough funds to operate!) accepts milk from mums who's babies are up to 12 months of age. I imagine this "cut-off" has been decided upon with good reasons (although I'm not familiar with them).

As only premmies are receiving bank milk at this point, I would say all the milk would be mixed, so all milk given out would contain at least some premmie EBM. But again, I'm only guessing.

Yeah MR I read on their website that the milk is mixed from a number or donors.

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I don't think the prem milk v the toddler milk would make much of a difference in the scheme of things would it? If it is going to a milk bank to be processed before use, then aren't separating it out are they? Otherwise you would need different categories of milk for each stage of infancy and toddlerhood.

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When I spoke to the lady from the Mercy Breastmilk Bank she mentioned that I might not be needed right at the beginning when they start accepting donors because Kyson is already 6 weeks old. She said they are going to make it a priority to accept milk from NICU and SCN mothers who have premie babies. So my assumption would be that they don't mix the milk from mothers of babies of different ages. The pamphlet mentions that the milk from a number of donors gets mixed together, but again I'd assume that all the milk that gets combined would be from mother's who have babies of similar ages.

Thanks for that. I guess it's a big ask to go around 'recruiting' if you will, mothers with babes in NICU or SCN, and ask for their milk when they could already be struggling with it, or simply aren't interested or even able to do it, as how many prem mums would it take to get a decent supply to cater for all the prem bubs who can't get enough from their own mums? But then I suppose once they realise just how vitally important it is for prem bubs to get prem milk, they might change their minds. And does the 'prem milk' you make go on for how long? When does it become 'regular' milk (for lack of a better word LOL) does it change ever so slightly when you reach your edd so it is nourishing a term baby?

That's good to have that info - thanks... :hug:

Actually prem mothers often have loads of milk & this will make the target easier. When a baby is prem - the mothers milk comes in as it normally would post birth - obviously it's more tenuous as arrificial stimulation obviously is not as fruitful as feeding your baby. I had close on 20 litres of milk frozen when I left NICU/SCN. There were many women with loads as well - remembering that your milk comes in with all the stimulation to feed a term baby. A NICU baby needs about 1ml per 3 hours at 800grams (approx) so you can see that the extra milk when lactation is successful is huge.

I too was asked on the sly about my milk - however it never got given and all of my milk was discarded. Because there was no milk bank and my tiny girl wasn't drinking any where near what I was producing.

It is stressful expressing when you have a NICU baby - often you are ill (I was in HDU for a week post birth), you don't have physical contact with your baby (I did not see Imogen until she was a week old), or if you do it's hands through the port holes of an incubator.
So all of these conditions set up some women - I would think especially first time Mamas to have huge difficulties with the breast milk production. For those who are successful there is a huge amount left over. I was expressing at 10 days in one feed what she needed for 3 days... So you can see how the Premmie milk over production can happen and therefore how a milk bank supplying only Prem milk would work...

Yeah I can attest to the premmie milk over production. I did have my toddler feed a few times to help the milk along tho ;) coz the paeds were pressuring me to get more milk in the fridge. She was on the glucose drip and they were getting impatient for her topups. Not long after it came in I was pumping 200mls in about 5/10mins every 3 hrs after feeding her. I did eventually stop expressing after every feed LOL coz it was getting ridiculous. I could have easily pumped more each time, but I stopped at a full bottle each time, coz I was too lazy to get another bottle LOL.

Just an update. I just got an email back from the milk bank. They said they have a waiting list of donors atm but I can put my name down. So I guess they just don't have enough resources to cope with all those wanting to donate. Would be good if they did.

It's such a shame isn't it? All that bm available and all those premmie babies needing it, but no funds to bring the two together. The 2007 Parliamentary Inquiry into Breastfeeding recommended Government funding of milk banks nationally but sadly, like most of the recommendations, we are yet to see any action. Perhaps we need to be writing to our local members.

This isn't something I had considered much before, but have now read every single post in this thread and found it so informative and emotive - thank you all (particularly Flowerchild for the grand visions for the future).

With reference to not being able to approach people to offer / ask for EBM, I think that's where the importance of a structured scheme comes in - if a nurse was able to offer this option, I'm sure many more would take it up- given the appropriate checks and balances were made.

There is a great presentation on the internet showing the importance of many aspects of milk banks. Ben Hartmann - change champions. http://www.changechampions.com.au/re...nn_Mat0209.pdf