Unless you
have had a great abundance or a critical lack, you’re probably not privy to the
milk sharing community - breast milk, that is.
Giving birth
to a child from a body completely absent of milk ducts (thank you bilateral mastectomy) is a new experience for me, one
that has created the dilemma of how I will sustain and nourish this new life. I do not want my daughter to be any more disadvantaged than my cancer has already made us. I want her to reap some of the great many benefits of breast milk; I want her to be free of the potentially harmful side effects of formula. ...
I start by researching breast milk banks, the only thing I've heard of at this point. But I learn that most milk banks cater to infants in the NICU, not people like me.
With providential timing my dear friend calls: “I have a really weird question and you don’t have to answer right away. I’ve been thinking about it a lot though,” she begins. “Would you want me to pump milk for your daughter? ...Is that too weird?”
Wow! Amazing! I don’t find
it weird.With providential timing my dear friend calls: “I have a really weird question and you don’t have to answer right away. I’ve been thinking about it a lot though,” she begins. “Would you want me to pump milk for your daughter? ...Is that too weird?”
Okay, maybe it's a little weird. But the kindness, the benevolence, the benefit outshine the oddity.
Within weeks, one friend
becomes two, then three, then six, as word of my need spreads.
I research milk sharing risks and how to minimize them, how to store milk and for how long, how to thaw and prepare the frozen milk.
When I
realize how quickly entire freezers of stored milk will dwindle under the demands of a new and
voracious little appetite, I will eventually branch out into the world of milk
sharing amongst strangers. I will arrive there gingerly, over time, and with
much research.
For now, I am
reveling in the blessing that a community of girlfriends can be. I know who the milk is coming from; I know each mama intimately. And I know what amazing friends I have to give my daughter such a precious gift - a gift I cannot provide her myself.I research milk sharing risks and how to minimize them, how to store milk and for how long, how to thaw and prepare the frozen milk.
When I
realize how quickly entire freezers of stored milk will dwindle under the demands of a new and
voracious little appetite, I will eventually branch out into the world of milk
sharing amongst strangers. I will arrive there gingerly, over time, and with
much research.
it seems such a common concept to me now. sometimes i forget and speak of milk sharing casually and have to receive the strange looks to remember what an oddity it once was.
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