Low Yield in My Region

Several weeks ago, I dropped off a donation the the drop site in my area for the milk bank. After waiting for a nutrition profile to be sent to me and not seeing it, I began to get worried that there was either a problem with my sample or it hadn't made it to the milk bank. I sent out an e-mail inquiring about it. Later that day, I received a phone call and got some disturbing news.

No, there wasn't anything wrong with my milk. They actually had picked up some donations the day I had dropped mine off, but they hadn't received mine - I probably dropped it off after they had been there and left. What was disturbing was what the representative told me about picking up the milk in general.

My drop site is one of three in the Houston area. Over the two week period spanning from the time I last made a donation (and the last time they picked up milk) to the phone conversation I was having, only 700 oz. was being reported for pick up in the entire Houston area. More than half of that was mine. That means that in that two week period, one donor was providing 68% of the milk being reported for pick up.

I was shocked and appalled and felt like the weight of the world was upon me. How was it possible that the amount collected in a two week period from the largest city in the second largest state in the US was so low and most of it came from one mom? After a further conversation with the representative, I was assured that it was a particularly low time. A normal pick up occurs roughly every 10-14 days and anywhere from 1000-3000 oz. is normally collected. Though better, that still doesn't seem like enough. And it's not. There is a huge demand and not enough donors.

Though I technically am not "carrying the city," I kind of feel like I am. I want to do something, I want to get the word out. I want to pump more in what little time I have before my little one turns one year old and I can no longer donate. The low point is not over. When I made my most recent donation, it seemed like a similar issue. The log book where we "sign in" our donation was still on the same page from my last two visits. We need to rally mamas now to help those fragile babies if they can. A small amount from a bunch of moms can make a huge difference.