You are probably breastfeeding and also interested in donating your milk so that other babies benefit from it that for various reasons they cannot drink their mothers' milk.
Milk banks in Spain are few, there are barely two. One in the Balearic Islands and the other is the new human milk bank opened at the end of last year, the first on the peninsula, which depends on the Neonatology service of the Hospital 12 de Octubre in Madrid.
Who can donate their milk? Any healthy mother who is breastfeeding her baby, who does not consume alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, who does not have infections (hepatitis B or C, HIV. Syphilis) and who does not take medications or herbs that could harm the baby who receives the milk.
Whenever your own baby's food needs are met, between the second and sixth month of starting breastfeeding, it is the most propitious time to start donating breast milk. The donation is completely voluntary, free and can be extended for as long as the mother wishes.
How do you donate? It is recommended to have about one extraction a day, which can be done from one breast with a breast pump while the baby is taking from the other breast, or removed after he sucks.
Your baby will not have less food because you give. Milk production is stimulated with suction, therefore the more you extract and the more the baby drinks, the more milk you will have.
The Milk Bank provides the breast pump, if you need it, an instruction manual on the correct extraction, storage and transport of the milk, as well as containers to conserve the extracted milk and labels to identify the samples. It is important to follow all the steps so that the milk arrives in perfect condition with its qualities intact for babies who may need it.
The quantity does not matter. Everything adds up, every drop counts. If it's 200 ml per day, better, but 20 ml can also be a lot for a premature baby.
Babies who benefit greatly from breast milk are premature babies who remain in intensive care. Although it is ideal for them to be fed by their own mother (who in addition to providing their milk gives it their warmth), breast milk donated by other mothers is infinitely better than formula milk. It has been shown that premature babies fed with breast milk have a chance of better recovery and development.
As you can see, you can do a lot with very little. I am sure that many mothers who are breastfeeding their babies would be delighted and proud to be able to help other less fortunate babies.
To donate, you have to have the nearest Milk Bank to your province of residence. Below I leave the links to the two Spanish banks, which will surely arrange an interview to meet you and perform an analysis to rule out any disease.
