DEVASTATED after realising she wouldn’t be able to breastfeed her newborn son, Joanne Campbell, 32, was keen to find a solution that avoided using formula.
Baby Hayden, now six months old, was born tongue tied – with the strip of skin which connects his tongue to the bottom of his mouth being shorter than normal – and Joanna’s own supply was low.
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Desperate to find an alternative, the mother-of-one from Sydney, Australia, took to Facebook in a bid to find other mum’s who were willing to donate their breast milk.
Taking to the dozens of support groups online for struggling mums, Joanne explained she was avoiding formula because it was giving Hayden stomach aches.
And within days she received offers from many breastfeeding mums who were willing to donate bags of frozen breast milk for Hayden.
The tot now drinks up to one litre of the free, donated milk from the Facebook mums which Joanne drives round to collect from their homes – and she says she couldn’t be happier.
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Joanne said: “I found out these Facebook groups for mum’s donating their milk before I even gave birth as I was hoping to donate my own milk – but I had no idea I would need it myself.
“After writing my first post about needing the milk for Hayden I was inundated with messages from women who were willing to help.
“I went to one woman’s house for my first batch of frozen milk and have since used another seven donors in a bid to feed Hayden with milk instead of formula. I now store it all in my freezer.
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“Hayden didn’t get on well with the formula based products as it gave him a stomach ache so I did everything I could to avoid it.
“Some people find it disgusting and don’t understand why we’d share another human bodily fluid but I find it so normal now.
“There are some bacterial diseases you can catch through breast milk but I don’t believe any mums on the group would donate their milk if they had anything that could harm another baby.
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“Hayden has benefited so much from other women’s milk.”
Joanne’s partner Adam Bahan, 31, also supports her unusual feeding choice for Hayden, trusting that when it comes to feeding the baby, mum’s know best.
She added: “Hayden couldn’t latch on properly and I was given a pump by the hospital so I could feed him with a bottle, but my supply was really low.
“The mums have been a huge lifeline as without them Hayden would still be facing agonising stomach cramps from the formula milk.”
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The stay-at-home mum explained that her hospital does not provide milk for babies unless they are born prematurely.
She concluded: “Ideally we’d be able to access it through clinics and hospitals as we’d know it had been screened for diseases but I trust the mum’s I meet online.
“I hope the next time I have a baby that I am able to breastfeed now that I know more about it all.
“I’m now introducing Hayden to solids so we don’t need as much milk, but I still like to keep a freezer stash as it can last for months.”
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