Star Telegram | 01/05/2003 | The how and why of milk donation Posted on Sun, Jan. 05, 2003
The how and why of milk donation
By Carolyn Poirot
Star-Telegram Staff Writer


Angela Plunkett says she began donating breast milk to the Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin because she was producing more than her daughter, Hannah, now 2, could consume -- and her freezer was full.

She resumed the time-consuming effort when Emma, now 8 months, was born.

"I had so much milk, I was uncomfortable," Plunkett says. "My first baby was a boy, and he would drink as much milk as I made. There was no over-production. But Hannah would nurse on one side and be satisfied, so I would pump the other side and freeze it for later, thinking production might slow down just when she started needing more."

But production remained high, and Plunkett already had a freezer full of milk in June 2000 when she saw a poster presentation on milk banking at a La Leche League area conference.