Lucy donates over 30 litres to Birmingham Women's Hospital Milk Bank
Our Milk Bank is calling for more donors to provide breast milk to babies in our neonatal unit and provide to hospitals across the West Midlands.
They’re looking for more donors like Lucy from Worcester, who is one of our recent donors and has donated over 30 litres over the last 7 months.
Lucy started donating as she had excess supply and had heard of the Milk Bank through her midwife.
She said: “I filled over 200 bags in my freezer, I’d been expressing and had excess milk supply. We didn’t know what to do with it, so decided to start putting the excess milk to good use.
One of my friends’ babies was born at 29 weeks, and one of my friends is a midwife and she talked about the importance of breast milk for premature and sick babies and how it can go to help them. I had the supply and I just wanted to help out those babies where I could.”
Over the course of 7 months after having her second baby, Lucy donated approximately 30 litres to the Milk Bank.
She said: “For me, the most rewarding part is knowing that what you’re doing is making a difference to somebody so vulnerable.
By donating the breast milk, that could make a big difference to those babies, and every litre makes a massive difference.”
Lucy is encouraging other parents to donate if they can and spoke about how easy the process was.
She said: “It’s really easy to sign up and really easy to collect the milk. The bottles arrive within a few days - you don’t have to do anything that costs you any money, and it was easily picked up by the blood bikers. I donated over 30 litres, and I got to know the blood bikers really well.
The one thing I’d say was that I wasn’t aware that Birmingham Women’s Hospital covers such a huge area. I live in Worcester, and I wasn’t aware of how the network of volunteer blood bikers and hospitals work together to transport the stuff that’s needed between hospitals.”
If you are a breastfeeding mother with a baby less than 6 months old and you find you have surplus milk, we would love to hear from you, you could be changing the lives of another baby and their family forever.
If you would like more information about donating or have any questions, please get in touch on 0121 335 8245 or bwc.milk.bank@nhs.net.