Human Milk News is featuring a milksharing story every day leading up to World Milksharing Week 2012 (Sept. 24-30)

Loralea and Emmalea

Loralea conceived her daughter Emmalea while undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Yet, Emmalea was born healthy and Loralea breastfed her until the news of her cancer recurrence when Loralea was just two months old. She need more chemotherapy but was devastated to realize harmful chemotherapy chemicals would transfer through her breastmilk to her daughter. She would be unable to breastfeed and couldn't even continue her breastfeeding relationship by feeding Emmalea with an at-breast supplementer. She was heartbroken. Then she learned about milksharing from her lactation consultant and put out a request for donor milk.... read what happened next.

Loralea and Emmalea’s Story ~ Chemo = No SNS, TX, USA | August 25, 2012 
A year and a half ago I was diagnosed with stomach and uterine cancer. As if that wasn’t hard enough news to swallow, during the following days I learned that that my ability to have children after my treatment was going to be next to impossible. My gynecologist approached me about the possibility of freezing my eggs, but my oncologist was vigilant about starting cancer treatments as soon as possible, noting that the egg freezing process can sometimes be a very lengthy process. Fortunately, I’d been blessed with a son, James, who was nearing 5-years-old at the time, so I comforted myself by the fact that I had him, and nothing was really lost....more