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To finish my thought, I have been dumping between 6 and 8 oz every day. If I don't pump, I get a blocked duct. I feel bad when I dump it.

May I ask why are you dumping the milk?? Instaed of freezing it? I too have a lot of milk. Probablly about 200 oz in my fridge and freeze 6-8 ounces on the days that I work but it may come in handy one day. To donate it depends on which place but the minimum is usally 150-200 oz.

We have deep freeze full of more milk then we can use already. I am getting tired of buying the bags and freezing when we already have so much. What is the alternative to dumping? Donating. I just don't know how complicated it gets. I do know they do blood tests which I am not concerned about. I just wondered if someone out there had donated.

From what I read, they mail you sterile bottles. I sounds like you fill them and freeze them immediately. After they are all full, I think they send you dry ice and a packing label to return. They will not accept the freezer bags from the store. Milk in the bottles gets pasturized...maybe it has something to do with the pasturization process.

I saw something on 20/20 or dateline about this, so many women do have an over abundance and donate it to preemies, adopted children and mothers who cannot make their own milk. One woman had a masectomy because of breast cancer and didn't even think she could have children and she got pregnant, so women donated their extra milk to her. You can find out about milk banks on the web, although some states are weird about human milk because it is a bodily fluid, you would have to find our your states regulations.

Sounds like a wet nurse of modern times. Neat.

check with your hospital.
Our hospital accepts donated milk.

Thanks for the suggestion. I already did that. They refered me to the milk bank. I am guessing that you must live in a larger community. They require that all milk be pasturized. The closest milk bank to us is in Denver. Milk is constitued as a bodily fluid which makes it fall into a touchy category for donation. thanks for the idea though.

I received my information packet in the mail today. I looked through the questionaire and made it all the way to the second to last question...Have you lived in Europe for more then 6 months between 1980 and 1996? I was an exchange student for a year in 1989. This question is related to Mad Cow disease which evidentally was common in European cattle at that time. There is no known blood test to determine if a person has the disease (attacks the brain). I used to be able to donate blood (I had given something like 36 to 38 times. Then they added this same question...so I can't do that either. At least I TRIED. I am not bummed, just disappointed.