Hey Everyone,
I stand corrected. You are absolutely right. You CAN ship breastmilk in a cooler with blue ice packs...that's what a donor mom did for me and the breastmilk arrived safe and sound. <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />
I wish I could take all the credit for that "just breastfed look" you see on Ethan's face in the gallery section of this site here
http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/show...amp;amp;fpart=1, but I did have help from my wonderful surrogate mom and now from some very generous donors via our fabulous, incredible, supportive member Nona who came to my rescue when Ethan's supply of frozen milk started to run out. I'm making 30 oz per day now, just about the same as when I breastfed Adam but Ethan is ENORMOUS...17 pounds at 4 months of age. And drinking 45 oz!! So I needed help...yep me...the breastmilk queen <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/blush.gif" alt="" /> ...and I'm not too shy to ask for it. And Nona and 3 donor moms came to my rescue. <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />
As I said, I'm making about 27-30 oz per day. How do I know? Well I occasionally have to miss a feeding and at that time he takes in 5 oz, sometimes even 6 oz from an AVENT bottle. Note, I did not let Ethan near anything remotely "bottle like" until he was 6 weeks old. The reason for that is bottles are the fastest way to kill your milk supply especially in the first few weeks and baby is prone to nipple confusion in the first few weeks as well. If you wait until then it's easier to allow a caregiver to feed your baby and then get baby right back onto the breast.
I had a little trouble with thrush a couple of weeks ago <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/frown.gif" alt="" /> and had to miss some feedings, pumped instead. So with all of this, I know how much I produce per feeding 3-4 oz and how much Ethan is taking in over a 24 hour period, 9 feedings x 5 oz average = 45 oz average.
Our wonderful surrogate mom helped out in the beginning and pumped and shipped frozen breastmilk to me from Texas to Montreal. You can ship breastmilk provided it is frozen. My surrogate mom shipped her milk which was stored in the Gerber storage bags with the ziplock top, inside the styrofoam coolers that you can get practically anywhere for about US$3. She then went to Mailboxes Etc and bought a cardboard box (about US$5) to put the cooler in because most shippers won't ship a styrofoam cooler. The bagged milk goes on the bottom of the cooler and then newspaper and then dry ice on top...no more than 5 pounds per cooler to keep within airline regulations...then more newspapers on top. Only the center seams of the box are sealed. When shipping with dry ice it's important not to completely seal every seam on the box so that the dry ice can vent a little...otherwise KABOOM! <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/shocked.gif" alt="" /> Pressure will build up from the dry ice melting to a gas. To find dry ice, just look in your yellow pages and ask the distributer who carries it near you. We've found dry ice at some Kroger and some Publix stores. In Montreal, it's only available at two places that specialize in dry ice. This is where I went for my dry ice when I wanted to take the frozen breastmilk with me to Florida.
Alternatively you can purchase a large 64 quart camping cooler for about US$18 at WalMart or Target etc. You line the bottom and sides of the cooler with frozen blue ice paks. Then put the bagged frozen breastmilk inside, then more blue ice packs on top...usually about 12-15 ice packs will do the trick. Seal the cooler up with tape and ship it...no need to put the camping cooler in a box.
We've shipped via FedEx priority overnight and UPS express overnight. To ship internationally you need to fill out a commercial invoice. Note that it is illegal to buy or sell breastmilk and so we put a value of US$1 and checked the box that said "not sold" and where it asked for a price we put "gift". There is no need to fill out a commercial invoice when shipping state to state but still the value should not exceed US$1. Be very sure to mark "FROZEN BREASTMILK" under "description".
Ok so then the breastmilk arrives....in the case of our surrogate mom who underwent extensive infectious disease testing, all we did was thaw the milk and use it in either the Lact-aid or bottle.
In the case where even though the donor is a surrogate who has been tested...if you can't get the documentation to prove it, you are taking a risk. <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/ooo.gif" alt="" /> What I decided to do is to pasteurize all milk that comes in regardless of the source if it's not from either me or my surrogate. Pasteurization will kill most nasty bugs while maintaining the nutritional quality of the milk. I'm in the process of working out a simplified way to pasteurize and as soon as I have more information I will let you all know how I did this.
I'm not so worried about losing immune factors because I'm providing them myself with my own milk. I'm also providing growth factors, enzymes, vitamins and all the other goodies via my own breastmilk. But for those of you who are reading this and who may just be starting out...if you are producing small amounts of breastmilk and supplementing the vast portion with donor milk, you'll want to provide your baby with infant vitamins including vitamin D. Something like PolyViSol plus D will do the trick. FYI it's a good idea to provide your baby with Vitamin D drops anyway. That's what the AMA and the CMA recommend.
There is no shame in supplementing. The main goal is to do the best you can, provide nurturing at the breast, and most importantly...love and enjoy your baby. You won't do yourself or your baby any good if you get completely stressed out about milk supply....believe me...I learned this the hard way. <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/blush.gif" alt="" />
I was pumping after feeds, using the Lact-aid and running myself ragged trying to keep up with my baby's needs and recover from my bout with thrush. <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" /> I had one week's worth of my surrogate's milk left. At that point I emailed Nona and said HELP!!! And being the fantastic, supportive and absolutely non-judgmental person that she is, <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" /> she rescued me within a day...I'm not kidding...all it took was a day! I practically wept with relief. <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" />
It's a lot of pressure being the milk supply queen LOL. <img src="http://www.asklenore.com/ubbthreads/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Here I find myself 44 years old and perimenopausal, trying to duplicate my first breastfeeding experience...except the first time I was 5 years younger and still producing eggs, my son Adam was a preemie who grew "normally" once he was at term... Not Ethan "the baby dinosaur" LOL.
Hope this helps.
Fondly,
