Erin, a Mother of Former NICU Twins, Gives Back!

My twins, Kolton and Kamden, were born at 26 weeks and 5 days’ gestation. They spent 84 long days in the NICU. Kolton, my son, had a PICC line malfunction, which caused his lungs to collapse, and we nearly lost him. My daughter, Kamden, had a NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis) scare.

During this stressful time, the one thing I could do for my twins was provide them my breast milk. I pumped in the hospital as soon as they allowed me to. The nurses were blown away with how much I was producing. As a first-time mom, I had no idea what a lot of milk was, until I ended up with a freezer full of it.

I was wondering what to do with all the excess milk, and then one of the NICU nurses suggested I donate it to Tiny Treasures Milk Bank, which is operated by Prolacta Bioscience, Inc. Among other things, the breast milk donated is formulated into a 100% human milk fortifier that is given to preemies like my babies in the NICU.

I decided Tiny Treasures was a perfect fit. I was lucky enough to be given a superpower of overproducing breast milk (I can produce over 100 ounces of breast milk a day) and decided it was a way for me to be of service to those precious NICU babies. I’m happy to report that since August 2014, I’ve donated more than 32,000 ounces of milk.