Donor Spotlight: Brooke’s Story

We recently heard from Brooke, who shared the personal impact of her experience as a Milk Bank donor, and the profound moment that brought everything full circle.

I gave birth to a healthy baby girl in September 2017. After the first three to four weeks we were cleared to not have to wake her up throughout the night – and wow, was she an incredible overnight sleeper – we could not tell our friends! I was producing such a large volume of breast milk, so I filled out a screening form on the Milk Bank website and eventually was cleared to become a donor. I wanted to make sure that my supply didn’t decrease, so I would wake up and pump at three o’clock (almost) every morning. It gave me a chance to text message with a friend who was on the other side of the world at that time, and it also allowed me to let my body do something incredible, hoping that it would help another baby somewhere.

Fast-forward to 2019 when I delivered my term twins and one of my babies had to spend about 24 hours in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), to get what we called a “factory reset”, to help him manage his blood sugars. My own baby didn’t receive human breastmilk during his stay in the NICU, but right beside his bassinet where he was “plugged in”, getting the specialized medical care that was required for his body to thrive, there was a small refrigerator with a Human Breast Milk label taped to the door. It was incredibly powerful to think that there might have been a bit of my breast milk in that fridge two years beforehand, helping a baby in the bassinet where my own baby now lay.

My babies are now all school age but I often think about those middle of the night pumping sessions, with the hopes of having it shared with a NICU baby somewhere, whose parents are leaning on the proverbial village. I was able to donate once and will carry that badge of honour my entire life; I am incredibly thankful for what my body could do, to my medical team, and to the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank.