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Donate Breastmilk

Thank you for your precious gift!

Thinking of donating your surplus breastmilk? It takes many donors to supply one baby with exclusive breast milk feeds, twelve to fifteen in fact! 

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Donated milk does not just go to premature, small and sick babies but to babies whose mothers cannot breastfeed for medical or other reasons such as:

  • cancer

  • contraindicated medication or recreational drugs

  • a mastectomy

  • insufficient glandular breast tissue

  • adopted, surrogate or fostered

  • Other full-time caregivers can include grandparents, male same-sex couples or solo fathers. 

  • hormonal issues such as Poly Cystic Ovaries or Hypothyroidism

  • blood transfusion - this can cause an initial reduction in milk supply.

  • stress 

  • maternal mental health

  • Reynard's Syndrome 

  • Sheehan's Syndrome  

  • or other maternal complications

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Baby: 

  • tongue or lip tie

  • cleft lip palette abnormality

  • small or large for gestation 

  • Food intolerance - such as dairy proteins 

  • Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES) -a type of non-IgE mediated food allergy that can present with severe vomiting, diarrhoea and dehydration. (this is a strict diet that your donor would need to be extremely vigilant for, we recommend you adjust your own diet to accommodate your baby as it is very rare to find a donor on the same path as you, if this is your baby's diagnosis).

  • other breastfeeding difficulties

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Below are the steps for donating breast milk.

Steps for donating breastmilk:

First step: Complete the lifestyle questionnaire

 

Please complete the online Donor lifestyle questionnaire in the below link.

 

If you answer yes to some of the questions, it does not automatically mean you cannot donate. Such as; coffee, medications and alcohol intake CAN be okay whilst donating, we need to be aware so we can pass this information on to the recipient family, as  the decision is ultimately up to them.

For more information on medication and breastmilk, see link below: Medication and donor breastmilk info.

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It is especially important to continually update us regularly on any medication you are taking or any changes in your health.

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For a minimum one off donation, we require a 7L milk donation if you are no longer with your midwife, due to the cost of the blood tests. 

 

For a minimum initial donation as an ongoing donor for 3 months or more, we require 5L if you are no longer with your midwife due to the cost of blood tests.  

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Second step:  Blood tests. 

 

It is recommended by health professionals that you to have a blood test before donating/receiving breastmilk. 

 

Antenatal bloods do not include Hep C, CMV and HTLV 1&2, and they will be outdated as these blood tests only last for 3 months before they need to be renewed. 

 

For some viruses you may not know you have had a past infection. An example: Cytomegalovirus - CMV, approximately 80% of the population have had CMV at some stage in their life and once they have been infected, it can resurface at any time. It is critical that a recipient knows your CMV status, as this can be life threatening for a premature baby or a baby with ongoing health issues if consuming raw unpasteurised milk. 
 
Getting your donor blood tests as soon as possible is very important. Currently, in the South Island and some North island labs, the HTLV 1&2 test can take up to 2 weeks to receive a result. This delays babies receiving screened milk and unfortunately this situation has not changed with the current South Island lab service.
If the donor lives in the north half of the North Island this test gets sent to NZ Blood Services and is not an issue. 

 

If you are donating to a baby who has an urgent request for milk, please ask your GP or Midwife to mark your lab form as “URGENT” to speed up the process. 

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DONORS - If you cannot get your blood tests through your midwife (which are free, prior to discharge), please consult your GP. The cost is $250+ in most areas and we recommend you form an agreement to share this cost with your milk recipient. 

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The tests required for milk donation:
 

- Hepatitis B

- Hepatitis C

- CMV IgG and IgM (Cytomegalovirus)

- Syphilis

- HIV

- HTLV 1&2  (Human T-lymphotropic Virus or Human T-cell

  Leukaemia Virus)
 

Haematology

Once your results have been released from the lab you can ask your midwife/doctor to email these to you straight away, or you can pick them up directly from the blood lab with some photo ID. Please ensure that your results have your name and the date the blood was drawn on each page. Once you have your results you can email them to the recipient

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If a Recipient has paid for your blood tests it is recommended that you follow through with the agreement to reserve your milk for them, unless you urgently require the milk for your own baby.

Examples: you require urgent surgery, you are in an car accident or fall ill and cannot feed your baby. 

DONORS - It is recommended that you renew your blood tests every 3 months as the virus incubation period is approximately 3 months. 
 

 

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Third step: Collect and store your milk.

 

Please store in double zip locked sterile milk storage bags, this reduces the risk of a leak or bag splitting. Write your name, date, time of day, any recent medication or coffee/alcohol/food allergen if applicable intake (within two hours of pumping milk).

 

To freeze take out any air left in the top of the bag - this allows the frozen milk to expand, lie the milk bag on a flat surface - makes for easier storage and packing for delivery and to reduce the incidence the bag splitting if knocked.  


RECOMMENDED STORAGE TIME - 6 months in chest freezer/stand alone freezer and 3 months in fridge/freezer. 

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What if your milk is older?

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We follow International Milk Banking guidelines, that being said, your milk is still good to use if stored in the chest/stand alone freezer past 6 months, however it will degrade as it ages.

 

You may still be able to share your milk with recipients with full disclosure regarding its age if it has just past the 6 month expiry date.  Other organisations state, mother to mother sharing for a well full term baby, can share stored milk up that is up to 12 months old. 

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Fourth Step: Deliver milk

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Courier - We recommend you ship milk using a polystyrene box, it acts like a chiller once filled with frozen milk and ice.

  • Find an appropriate sized polystyrene box

  • Filled with ice to the top - loose ice shaken into the box fills the gaps around the milk bags nicely

  • Seal the lid edge to the box with packing tape.

  • label - write FROZEN MILK on the top and sides and attach packing slip

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A free polystyrene box is reasonably easy to access from:

  • Supermarkets

  • Vets

  • Pharmacies

  • Pet/Fish shops

  • or purchase from a store

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If finding a polystyrene box is proving difficult and your delivery is within 24hrs via a courier, you could use a chiller bag stacked with ice and placed inside a cardboard box. 
NOTE: not recommended during summer

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Questions? 

You'll find lots of helpful information on our FAQ page including questions such as:

- How to label bags of milk?

- How to store your milk?

- Where can I find affordable milk storage bags?

- Will it cost me anything?

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We're here to help you navigate through this process.  Please contact us with any further questions

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