Sault mom says donating breast milk brings her joy

The Sault’s Nicole L’Heureux, mother of a five-month-old daughter, is on a mission to help other moms with newborn babies by donating her own breast milk.

While experts recommend exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a baby's life, some women may not be able to breastfeed their baby due to low milk supply for various medical reasons.

After L'Heureux gave birth to daughter Emma in May, she found she had breast milk to spare.

“I overproduced. We had no freezer room. Typically I could use it within a year but because Emma’s nursing so well, she’s not really taking a bottle, so I was thinking ‘we’re never going to use this, it’s going to go to waste,’” L’Heureux said.

“Anybody who breast feeds, it’s like liquid gold...you know the saying ‘don’t cry over spilled milk.’ In the breastfeeding world we do cry over spilled milk,” L’Heureux chuckled.

“It turned out that it’s not going to go to waste. It’s going to help other babies.”

Through her doctor, L’Heureux found out about the possibility of donating her milk, and from there discovered the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank run by Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

L’Heureux said she did not know about that possibility, and many mothers with babies still don’t know.

“At my daughter’s three-month appointment my doctor told me about it and said ‘look into it and maybe you could donate your milk.’”

“So then there was a little bit of a process where I had to go for some blood work and have doctors sign off on it, and a couple of interviews. I got approved for it and then they (the milk bank) sent me the boxes and the girls down there are super good. We just made sure we scheduled it properly. They told me when they had freezer room available and then we did the overnight shipment.”

L’Heureux said her donated milk will be mixed with that of three other donors and pasteurized for a healthy recipe to provide to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) babies within Ontario. 

“Sometimes mothers do not produce enough milk, production of milk is delayed or they simply cannot be with their child. The babies will be put on a donor list and given the donated milk. Because formula cannot be created fully to mimic the nutrients that breast milk has, donor milk makes it the best option for sick and preterm babies,” L’Heureux said.

L’Heureux said she has donated once so far (in September) and is now an ongoing donor for the Ontario Human Milk Bank.

“You put the frozen bags into freezer boxes and then Purolator comes and picks them up and they do an overnight shipment and the milk’s still frozen when it gets to Toronto,” L’Heureux said. 

“They can take a minimum shipment of 150 ounces at a time. My first shipment was 340 ounces (10 litres), so it was two boxes. I’ll do just one box at a time now.” 

“They (the Ontario Human Milk Bank) send you the boxes, the freezer packs, the labelling, they send you the bags and a prepaid stamp. You just contact Purolator, schedule a pickup with them and then everything’s taken care of from there.”

Shipping arrangements to the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank are provided free of charge.

Donors are not paid for their milk.

Human milk banks in Canada rely on mothers who voluntarily give their breast milk to help a medically fragile baby.

Donor milk is provided free of charge to eligible hospitalized babies by prescription.

“I was a little nervous going through the process because it was unknown territory but once I was approved I was very excited about it because it wasn’t going to waste, it was going to be used,” L’Heureux said.

“Not everybody can do this (donate). It makes me feel very thankful to be able to do this, because our son was born preterm five years ago and he was in the NICU (at Sault Area Hospital) for about three weeks.” 

“He was tube fed but because I was staying at the hospital they were able to use my milk, but there were other babies in there. A mother was crying because she was so happy she was able to get a little bit of milk...sometimes for babies, milk can be a life and death situation. If the mother’s not producing it, or she can’t be there or she’s on heavy antibiotics, she can’t give that milk to the baby. Having a baby in NICU, I’ve seen it, and I know the importance of it, so I’m super happy to be able to provide milk for other babies who can’t get milk right away...I’ve seen the struggles that other babies and other mothers have with this issue.”

L’Heureux said her son is doing just fine these days, by the way.

And, daughter Emma’s birth this year was on time with no complications.

L’Heureux said she wants to spread the message about the possibility of donating breast milk through the Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank.

“I didn’t want to see it go to waste if it could be used. It turns out that it can be used. A lot of my friends didn’t know about this. Some of them are breastfeeding mothers. This is my second child and I didn’t know.”

“The milk bank recently hit 5,000 donors since their project began but only currently has 500 ongoing donors within Ontario. If you think about all of Ontario, that’s not a lot. In my opinion if more people knew they could help, I’m sure that number would be higher. After my post on social media I had many comments, a lot of them were from other mothers telling me they had to throw out their milk because their baby refused to take a bottle or that they had no idea that they could donate. They’re always going to need more donors. I feel there’s definitely more than 500 people that could help right now,” L’Heureux said.

“(Through spreading the word about donating breast milk in the Sault alone) it could be even one or two other mothers that decide that this is going to be their mission too, to produce more for other babies. Even if it’s five extra people they could get from the Sault, that would be awesome.”   

“If your body can do it, it’s a really good way to help little babies.”

“Eligibility is for any sick hospitalized infant who, at the discretion of their healthcare team, determines that the infant would benefit from donor milk in the absence of, or to augment mother's own breast milk supply” said Ashley Villarroel, Rogers Hixon Ontario Human Milk Bank spokesperson in an email.

The need is there. 

“Approximately 1,500 low birth weight babies are born in Ontario per year, and 70 per cent of preterm babies do not have access to a full supply of their mother’s own milk. However, due to the generosity of approximately 650 new approved milk donors per year, The Milk Bank dispensed 7,334 litres of pasteurized donor milk to 43 Ontario NICU's between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021,” Villarroel said.    

According to the Ontario Human Milk Bank, “for milk bank donors who receive a vaccination for COVID-19, there is no deferral period, therefore it is safe to donate your milk following a vaccination with the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.” 

“Just knowing I can help other babies, it brings joy,” L’Heureux said.