Can I give my extra breastmilk to friend's adopted baby?

QUESTION: Okay, I am breastfeeding my beautiful baby boy, Nicholas, and I love it. My question relates to a friend of mine who is adopting, who also has special health needs and is unable to attempt her own milk production (diabetic and kidney disease). We were wondering if it would be advisable for me to pump milk for her baby. I am healthy and on no medication except my pre-natal vitamin.

Thank you.

I am responding to your inquiry about supplying breastmilk to your friend's adopted baby which you sent to Breastfeeding.com. I am a lactation consultant in WV. I am glad you are nursing your sweet 5 month old and that you are enjoying it! I am also very sorry to hear that your friend has these health problems which preclude her from attempting to bring in her breastmilk. Diabetes alone can make it very challenging to breastfeed.

I am sure that your milk would be a wonderful gift to this baby. Do you know if the baby will have any health problems or be premature? In order to donate your milk to this baby, the doctors which care for the baby would have to be on board I would think, as well as the adoption agency. I know of no cases in which this has been done informally, however there are donor milk banks around the country. You may want to find out what they recommend and if they can help you coordinate direct donation. For legal reasons, you would have to have your milk tested periodically at a lab, I would guess, and the milk bank may be able to do that for you. If the milk is not put in the donor pool, there may not be as large a charge or perhaps donor milk could be given to the baby and your donations used to offset the cost, as blood banks do.

Most donor milk is used by severely needy babies, I think, premature babies, babies with digestive disorders, or ones who cannot tolerate formula for whatever reason.

I think you should inquire with the National Milk Banking Association. http://www.aboutus.com/a100/milkbank/

If you do a search on "milk banks" on yahoo, you will find several sites that comment on it. My connection is super slow tonight so I am just sending you the one above.

Good luck!

Elaine Matheny, IBCLC

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