- The milk is only good for 3 months.
- Most of it is from 11/12 and 12/12. Therefore if I can't donate soon (like... now) 1/2 will not be donatable.
- I have to get signed forms from my pediatrician and my doctor.
- The peds office says to allow 2 weeks for any forms. Also, I am not making an extra trip over there just to do this, and dealing with the... not terribly motivated... staff that work at their front desk. Sorry!
- Have no idea what it would be like at my internist's office getting them to complete this, but not excited to find out.
- Have to draw my own blood. Apparently they provide everything except the needle. Someone suggested going to student health? Well, I don't have student health insurance. Therefore I would have to go to my internist's office. I have no idea whether they would do this for me, and if so what they would charge. I am not excited to devote the time to finding out.
- Alternatively I could have a friend draw the blood for me... but they would have to "steal" a needle from the hospital, which just feels sketchy to me.
- The overall outlay of time and energy = really really really not worth it. Especially given the aforementioned to do list.
Oh well.
It will be nice to have my freezer back though.
Oh no! Sorry I'm not closer...I'd totally draw your blood for you. I still have stolen supplies from our phlebotomy teaching session. I empathize with the pain this must be, though...so many forms and hoops! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteYeesh.
ReplyDeleteIt kinda makes me feel better about the ounces upon ounces I finally tossed when we moved because (a) I stored them in the freezer door and (b) I hadn't rotated the stash properly & they had gone bad even before LO was a year old, but I couldn't bear to get rid of the remaining evidence of the work I had done to produce it all.
I know it's a pain, but I'm a NICU nurse and can tell you how AWESOME it is to have donated milk to use for our babies. There is almost always a shortage and it is such a gift for those babies!
ReplyDeleteWell, then there needs to be a process in place that doesn't involve a week's worth of labor to get the milk. I need to graduate.
DeleteThey make it really hard to do a good deed, no?
ReplyDeleteThe time is one thing. The other problem is that by the time I finished doing all of these various tasks, 1/2 the milk would be "expired" and they wouldn't be able to use it anyway. Since they require a minimum donation of 200oz, it is just not worth it for me to go through all of this only for them to tell me that they can't use it. Ergo...
DeleteAnd yes, it bothers me. If I had thought about this three months ago, I might have made time. On the other hand, at that point we had no idea how much of the stash I'd end up going through, so I might not have ended up donating anyway.
DeleteIt's just ridiculous...I feel like it's one of those things where they could make the rules and guidelines more available (say, at the hospital or something in a pamphlet, or at the doctor's office when you discuss baby's feedings)...had you known about it six months ago, at least you'd have been aware of the system...
Deletestealing a needle - not sketch :) they're everywhere! BUT yeesh agree, what a process. i've heard there are some facebook groups (i know there is one for NC) that talk about 'underground' donations -- ie people just link up, share stories, and you could give it to someone without all the red tape. either that or . . . craigslist? although i've also heard there are really weird breastmilk fetishizers out there (yeah . . . i know ughghg) so be careful!!
ReplyDeleteYou could post on babycenter under your local babycenter group to see if there are any takers. There are always desperate moms willing to take breastmilk--at least on my birth board. Of course, the process of contacting and meeting a complete stranger may be too involved as well. I don't know, all that time pumping and now to dump it in the trash would make me feel ill. I may be crazy enough to just use it in my cereal. :)
ReplyDeleteI briefly considered making ice cream out of it.
DeleteI'll probably keep trying to offer it to her in a sippy cup for a little while longer on the off chance she'll change her mind though.
Please check out Human Milk for Human Babies or Eats on Feets on Facebook. You can donate informally for free and without this lengthy process to term babies of moms with low milk supply, etc.
ReplyDeleteWould you accept a pint of blood from a stranger on the internet? Imagine how you'd feel if your baby got hepatitis C.
DeleteHoops to jump through. I hate hoops, especially when you're just trying to do something good to help some baby you don't even know. Is there someone you know you could donate to?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you took this one step further than I did. Now I feel even less guilty. Thanks for investigating:) Don't feel guilty about trashing - I learned in my divorce that sometimes you just gotta throw out those bad bananas and don't worry about making banana bread every time, ha ha.
ReplyDeleteOf all things, not donating breastmilk is really REALLY not something worth feeling guilty over. Sometimes you just have to make room for the fresh bananas.
Delete(Ok... that didn't sound quite right, LOL!)
Ugh. I had a feeling it'd be needlessly complicated. They should at least HELP YOU do it, since you are DOING A FAVOR. If they want more donators, NICUs should set up a program where you can go get your blood drawn, & get a quick H&P from an NP or something... and if everything was OK you could drop off your milk. Sorry it didn't work out, but I'm glad you looked into it so that you weren't left wondering.
ReplyDelete