Our Palliative care team realizes that you and your family are facing the most unimaginable loss during this time. We would like to offer our support in your time of loss. We realize that the passing of a baby brings with it many painful decisions, one of which is what to do about your breastmilk. This letter is meant to give you useful information and to help guide you on what to do next.
- You may or may not want to continue to pump and remove breastmilk.
- We suggest that you do continue to pump so that you do not feel unwanted pain and discomfort.
- You can try to pump or stimulate your breasts every 4-5 hours.
- If you want to stop your milk production, you can pump only for comfort, or just enough to remove milk without emptying your breasts.
- Your milk over time will start to slow down. You can choose to collect (pump/remove) the milk or to get rid of it. If you do decide to collect the breastmilk, you can reach out to milk banks like Prolacta, Human Milk Bank of San Jose and their representative will guide you on the donation process.
We can give you ice packs that you can use to help with some of the symptoms of swelling of your breast. These icepacks can be used again as needed or you can also use store-bought icepacks. You can put the cool icepacks right on your skin or wrap a thin towel around the icepacks before placing them on each breast.
While your milk supply is slowing down, you may still find that your breasts are leaking small drops of breast milk. You can wear nursing pads and a comfortable bra. Binding (wrapping of the breast with cloth material) your breasts is no longer suggested as it may cause plugged ducts. If you are having problems with stopping your lactation or have questions, please contact your healthcare provider.
We offer you our deepest condolences and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for allowing us to know your family and trusting us with the care of your beloved child.
Contact information for breast milk donation
San Jose Human Milk Bank
408-998-4550
mothersmilk.org
Prolacta Milk Bank
www.prolacta.com/en
