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Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra (USA) has donated thousands of litres of her own breastmilk to the Tiny Treasures Milk Bank of Duarte, California, USA, which helps support premature infants.
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Over the last nine years, I estimate my total donation numbers to be over
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350,000 ounces. I would not wish this condition on my worst enemy. It is... it is
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not fun. This is what I would pump in a day. That's a lot of milk. It's like the
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best feeling ever and it lasts for only minutes before my body starts making
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milk again. Nobody wants to live like this. Like nobody wants to live like this
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at all. How many individual babies have benefited from my milk? That is, first of
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all, impossible to know. The milk bank I donated to, they specifically take
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donated breast milk and create a breast milk product that is for preemies and
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micro preemies. So babies that have just reached that viability and something has
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happened where they were born far too early. They are not developed enough at
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all to be able to tolerate a man-made substance formula. It's too hard on their
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digestive system. They don't thrive. They don't survive. So this breast milk
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product is essentially a prescription. It is literally saving their lives. My body
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creates a lot of the hormone called prolactin and that is what drives milk
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production. So in the morning, all of my pump sessions are my largest and usually
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when I start pumping you might be able to see that the milk looks a little blue
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and this is what's called four milk. It's the milk that comes out first. It's
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usually higher in sugar and then later during a pumping session more of the
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hind milk will come out and that's the fattier, it's kind of fattier portion of
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the milk and I use a pitcher to mix all of the milk together so that it all has
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the same nutrients, the same makeup. Hyperlactation syndrome is technically a disability and I feel like we had to adapt just as anyone else would with any
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disability. First of all, everything was new to me so everything was a learning
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curve, everything was a struggle, everything was painful. I think that it
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has not only affected me but it has affected my family as well especially in
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the beginning when we couldn't go anywhere, we couldn't do anything. I
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always had to stick to this pump schedule and I always had to be home to
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do it but over the years and of course with the new technology that I am
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involved in I've been able to regain a lot of that freedom and I really try not
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to be held back. This is the little workhorse that allows me to live my life
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with this condition of hyperlactation. This little guy has given me my freedom
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back, the ability to do anything while pumping, be as mobile as I want while
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pumping instead of being glued to an outlet or a chair. Every weekday morning
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I drive my girls to school and it is maybe about a 30-minute round-trip drive
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so it's perfect for a pumping session. The standards that are put in place to be
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able to donate to our most vulnerable humans are very high, the standards are
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incredibly high and for very good reason. So every day I have to get all of my
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milk together that I have pumped and I need to mix it all because it separates
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the fat, rises to the top and the heavier water or the for milk part of
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the breast milk settles to the bottom. So I mix it and then I start to like package
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the milk or portion it out before I make what I call a milk brick which is 14
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bags of milk inside a gallon Ziploc bag. It's 6 ounces per bag so it's an 84
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ounce brick. I never let any breast milk go to waste it's all used or donated. So
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this milk right here is very special. After giving birth for a very short
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amount of time your body creates what's called colostrum. So this very I would
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call like limited edition colostrum is what I can send to recipients with
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brand spanking new babies. This would be a normal amount for a mom to pump or
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express after giving birth. My body after giving birth produced this amount. I work
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with a lot of recipients that their child has been given that label failure
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to thrive. Being able to turn that around and that label removed in so many
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different stories has just been everything to me and why I can continue
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doing what I do. Elizabeth has been a huge blessing to our family. It was
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during COVID and my milk could not come in yet in the hospital and they were
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gonna send us home with formula and we really wanted to breastfeed him. She
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dropped everything and came to our house and sat for a couple of hours with us
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taught me how to pump properly. Unfortunately my milk never fully came
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in so we just continue with the donor milk from her. I can't you know imagine
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raising our boys without her help of donor milk. I definitely respect and
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acknowledge the sacrifice that Elizabeth and her family makes on a daily basis
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and we sincerely appreciate all that she does and we're really honored to know
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her. Will I ever stop? Yes. I don't think that this is sustainable. I think that
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the physical toll, the mental toll, over time it continues to stack up and nobody
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wants to live like this. Like nobody wants to live like this at all. There are
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medications available to combat the prolactin hormone. These medications do come with some pretty serious side effects. Another option that I have is
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potentially looking into a double mastectomy to remove all of the glandular tissue that is producing breast milk. I think right now my current
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goals are to make sure that my son has enough breast milk and then from there I
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think the most promising option for me would be to get a double mastectomy. My
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wife Elizabeth, what she does with her donations and milk production is
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something that's very it's very important towards you know reaching a certain goal and helping children. She puts a lot of effort and love into it so
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it's something that I completely and fully support of her. My record only takes
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into account what I've donated to a milk bank and not all of the other donations
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that have taken place locally or worldwide to recipients. I am really
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hopeful that breaking this record and kind of sharing my story will normalize
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milk sharing
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#Women's Health