My baby was born at 32 weeks gestational and she had to go the NICU right away. She was born with treacher Collin’s syndrome which causes facial malformations, because of this she had a critical air way and had to be intubated at birth. I could only give her milk swabs for the longest time, but I was an over producer right away, so I always kept in the back of my head donating once I had enough milk stored away for her.
So she had only gotten a little breast milk though her g tube but there then came a time she got super sick ( she got pneumonia and an infection) and had to be medically paralyzed due to it being so hard to intubate her. Plus, she was at the point where we didn’t know if she was going to make it or not. That entire time though I kept pumping and giving it to the milk kitchen at children’s hospital of Wisconsin and they stored it for my baby. It got to the point where she wasn’t getting any of my breast milk and my spot in the milk kitchen was full , so I talked to the lactation nurse, who was super helpful about informing me about where to donate milk. And plus I needed a reason to keep pumping as well.
Although I couldn’t help my own baby with my breast milk I thought why not help other babies who are also in the NICU and need the milk. Children’s milk kitchen would actually make the donating process super easy for me. When milk would be brought to the hospital for the NICU babies then the milk bank would pick up my milk as well, it was just a really smooth easy process. Being able to keep pumping and donating helped keep my spirit up during a super hard time. Baby Xiomara is growing strong and getting her mothers milk, while any extra is donated to the milk bank. 
