Testimonials

• Jaclyn

  1. How did you hear about breast milk donation? I first heard about breast milk donation on the internet. I get daily updates from whattoexpect.com and saw an article and ad about milk donation. I then went to the website and read about it and knew instantly that I had to do this.
  
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  2. Why did you decide to donate your breast milk? I decided to donate my breast milk because I was producing so much more then what my baby was consuming and I couldn’t bare the thought of dumping it down the drain. I just knew I had to hold on to it. I kept thinking "somebody is going to need this". I am so glad I found Helping Hands Milk Bank.
  
  3. Why did you select the milk bank that you did? I selected Helping Hands Milk Bank because I saw the ad and visited the website. The website was very informational and it seemed like it was going to be an easy process.
  
  4. How was your donation experience? What did you like best? My experience has been wonderful from the first interview questions to sending off my last batch. Everything was very detailed and very organized and I always knew what I was supposed to do. I also received and sent many emails with information regarding my excess milk. I appreciated how efficient the responses were. The best part was finding out the total amount donated and knowing that it was going to help either a baby somewhere or provide breast cancer research. After donating almost a 1000 oz, I feel very blessed to have found Helping Hands Milk Bank. If possible, I hope to donate more in the future.
  
  5. What would you say to a friend or family member that was interested in donating breast milk? I have been telling everyone about my experience and how wonderful and easy it has been. I have also encouraged some friends to think about donating their excess breast milk too. I hope if there are other women that have lots of excess milk that they would consider donating it to Helping Hands Milk Bank. The greatest thing is that I may actually save a life, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that. Thank you so much to Helping Hands Milk Bank for doing what you do and for allowing me to be a part of this great experience!!
  
  

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• Annie

  1. How did you hear about breast milk donation? I heard about it a long time ago from a friend and once I had my daughter, started looking for places to donate.
  
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  2. Why did you decide to donate your breast milk? I was producing a lot more than my daughter was drinking, so I thought it would be nice to help preemies receive some of the benefits of breastmilk.
  
  3. Why did you select the milk bank that you did? I found HHMB using a Google search and it seemed like the process of donating with them would be fairly simple. They really made it seem like they would take care of all the logistics of donating.
  
  4. How was your donation experience? What did you like best? It was Excellent donating with HHMB. It was great that they also partnered with Susan G. Komen. Robin and Maura were especially awesome throughout the process. They both seemed to really care about the babies as well as the women that donate. HHMB made donating super easy. They supplied the milk bags, shipped the coolers, and had them picked up at my house. There really was not anything that needed to be done except pump, everything else was taken care of. It's really convenient for working mothers to donate through HHMB. I think the best part about donating through HHMB is that you know that you are doing something important to help fragile preemies. Also that the people you give this precious donation to understand how precious the milk really is and how much effort it can take to pump extra milk. They really appreciate the gift that is being given and make it as easy as possible for donating mothers.
  
  5. What would you say to a friend or family member that was interested in donating breast milk? I would stress that from the beginning, if there is any doubt that you may or may not use pumped milk in the future, freeze it an label it immediately. It takes a lot of commitment to nurse a child as well as to donate excess milk, but it is worth the benefits that the children receive. I would highly recommend donating through HHMB. They really make donating a great experience!
  
  

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• Deena

  1. How did you hear about breast milk donation? I had friends who had donated to another bank in Oregon. I had also read about milk donation online during my pregnancy.
  
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  2. Why did you decide to donate your breast milk? I was fortunate to have more than enough to feed my daughter and I couldn't bear the thought of discarding it when I knew how much it could help other babies and their mothers. I've also witnessed how much mothers of babies in NICUs appreciate the milk. It makes me feel so wonderful to help in this way.
  
  3. Why did you select the milk bank that you did? I researched a few banks online and spoke to the employees at HH Milk Bank on the phone and through email. Helping Hands had a wonderful "feel" to it. They were also very thorough in their screening process which is important to me as I know the milk was handled and delivered with care and professionalism. The staff members at Helping Hands were also very prompt in getting back to me when I had questions. Overall, they made donating very easy and rewarding.
  
  4. How was your donation experience? What did you like best? I absolutely loved donating my excess milk. Like I mentioned before, the experience made me so happy to know I was doing a good thing. I found pumping, storing, cataloging and freezing my milk to be very easy, albeit a time-consuming process (especially in the middle of the night!). HH Milk Bank made sending the frozen milk also very easy. I think what I like best is knowing I'll be able to share this experience with my daughter some day and hopefully she'll be proud knowing it was because of her, this was all possible. She is really the one to thank in my opinion. If she had not been so easy to breast feed, I might have had less production.
  
  5. What would you say to a friend or family member that was interested in donating breast milk? I would strongly encourage them to do so because it is so important to other moms and their little babies in NICUs. I would ask them to put themselves in the position of delivering a premature baby and ask them to think about how grateful they would be to receive this precious gift.
  
  

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• Michelle

  I first learned about donating breast milk from a friend who read about it online. After the birth of my first child, I planned to go back to work so I pumped a lot prior to returning, in order to ensure a plentiful supply for my baby while I was away. I then ended up quitting my job after two months, so that I could stay home with my child.
  
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  Once I was home full-time, I no longer needed the large surplus of frozen milk. Since I had so much breast milk stocked, I ended up running out of room in our freezer for the rest of the family's food, so I decided to donate my extra milk online. My baby was thriving without the frozen milk and donating to infants in need was a great opportunity instead of disposing of it.
  
  While my first child was breastfeeding, I was donating to a local milk bank. After the birth of my second child, the bank I had previously worked with was unable to accept donations at that time. I did a Google search, and found Helping Hands Milk Bank. After reading about their agreement to donate money to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and how the milk collected is made into therapies for premature infants in need, the choice to apply as a donor at Helping Hands Milk Bank was easy. The milk bank was also able to process my application quickly, making me a qualified donor within only a few weeks.
  
  The partnership between Helping Hands Milk Bank and Susan G. Komen has a personal connection to me: my mother is a breast cancer survivor. She is in remission and has been cancer-free for 5 years - thank GOD! But I believe that the money and funding towards foundations like Susan G. Komen, which focus on early detection, is what saved her life. My mother's cancer was caught early - she was in stage 2. Within two months of the mammogram and biopsy revealing the cancer, the doctors removed the lump, and administered chemotherapy and radiation.
  
  Donating money and participating in fundraising walks for breast cancer awareness and research are a passion of mine, so being able to contribute more money to Susan G. Komen through my milk donations is a complete bonus.
  
  Since my donation experience, I have shared donation information with friends and family. I also posted information on my Facebook page with the hope of spreading the word about breast milk donation. I hope that others who have a surplus of breast milk would want to donate in order to support a good cause such as Susan G. Komen.
  
  I have been completely blessed with an abundance of breast milk supply, and I know this is not the case for all women. I love knowing that my gift to produce breast milk not only benefitted my two children, but premature babies are now thriving because of it! It is empowering to know that for every ounce of milk I donated, one dollar went to the Susan G. Komen foundation to support breast cancer patients like my mother.
  
  I love that I have been a part of this effort, and it so special for me to know that both my boys contributed to helping little premature babies, as well as breast cancer patients like their grandma. My boys definitely made my milk supply abundant - it is because of them that I had extra milk to donate. Being a part of the HHMB program was a unique opportunity and I am thankful to have found them! We will cherish our involvement with the milk bank and keep them in our memories!
  
  

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• Chance and Sienna

  In January of 2009, at a little over 27 weeks of gestation, Chance and Sienna had surprising New Year's plans. With three months left before their due date, they decided to make their grand entrance into the world while mom and dad were vacationing just outside of Sarasota, FL. Chance made his entry weighing two pounds, three ounces, and Sienna arrived weighing one pound, 15 ounces.
  
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  Although they arrived so early, the twins still had a good first week in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Sienna was weaned from a ventilator a few hours after birth, and Chance was extubated on day five. Approximately seven days after their birth, however, Chance began having gastrointestinal problems that required surgical intervention and had to be moved to a NICU in St. Petersburg, FL. Almost two weeks later, Sienna also began exhibiting similar issues and joined her brother in the NICU in St. Petersburg for further evaluation but thankfully didn't require surgery.
  
  While Chance and Sienna experienced excellent care by all the NICU caregivers who helped them, they also had someone very special in their life who was their most fierce advocate - their mother. Mom was a pediatric occupational therapist, and a certified lactation counselor who worked in a Level III NICU at another hospital. She had no doubt as to what was best for her twins, especially when it came to their diet.
  
  "I knew how important it was to keep my babies on an exclusive human milk diet. When it was recommended that a human milk fortifier be added to my breast milk because of their nutritional needs, I was well aware that the standard of care in most NICUs was a powdered cow milk-based fortifier. The twins were already experiencing feeding intolerance and I was not willing to take the risk of adding a non-human product to their diet. Fortunately I was aware of Prolacta Bioscience and the fact that they were the only company that provided a fortifier made exclusively from human milk."
  
  The NICU in which the twins were staying had not used Prolacta's human milk-based human milk fortifier, H²MF™ in the past, yet they agreed to use it for the first time with Chance and Sienna. The twins thrived. Over the next few months, the twin's condition improved, and they continued to grow and gain weight.
  
  Nearly four months after making their early New Year's entrance, Chance and Sienna had grown healthy and strong enough to ride home in their new minivan across the state to Hollywood, FL with mom and dad. Chance weighed seven pounds, nine and a half ounces, and Sienna weighed six pounds, ten and a half ounces.
  
  "We will forever be grateful to the NICUs, doctors, nurses, and staff who fought along with us to save our babies. We will also always be grateful to the breast milk donors who made it possible for a human milk fortifier to be made using exclusively human breast milk."
  
  

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• Viktoria

  My name is Viktoria, and I live in Queens, New York. My twin boys were born July, 2010, at 39 weeks weighing 6.6lbs and 7.2lbs. I always knew that breast milk was best for babies. The hospital where I had my C-Section was also very supportive of breastfeeding, and they provided all the help and tools for which a nursing mom could ever ask.
  
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  This is actually one of the reasons I chose that hospital. I started to save my extra milk right away, as my goal was to feed my twins with breast milk at least for 6 months. Very soon I had to purchase a deep cooler to store the extra milk, and that is when I started to research what I could do for other babies and other charitable organizations. I didn't have to research for too long when I found the Helping Hands Milk Bank website. Everything looked very promising, so I gave it a try! With their help and informational emails I became a donor in no time, even with the required blood and DNA test. When I was ready to make my first donation, I contacted HHMB and soon received my cooler and shipping instructions. They were so easy to follow. I have been able to make two donations already, and am getting ready to make my third one. It's a great feeling to know that I was able to help some babies at the hospital and that a donation to Susan G. Komen for the Cure was made for every qualified ounce of my breast milk ($1 / 1 oz). I would definitely encourage everyone who is able to help to do so!!!