Olivia Ames knows all too well what it’s like to have a premature baby.
The young mum had to have an emergency C-section last December and baby Oscar arrived into the world five weeks early.
Olivia was breastfeeding her son to help him thrive but because he was in an incubator for the first few weeks, she had to pump breast milk which was then fed to him through a tube.
After a chance conversation with another mum, Olivia decided she wanted to donate some of her breast milk to another baby in need.
She told The Metro: "I found out about donating milk when I was on the way to work with another mum, who also breastfed.
‘I asked her a few questions and she told me about the group “Human Milk for Human Babies UK”.
The 23-year-old who runs a parenting and lifestyle blog called Oscar’s Mum explained: “After a bit of research, I wrote on the page and stated my age, smoker status (non-smoker), good diet, health conditions and where I was located.
“I had two women contact me, one struggled to breastfeed and her baby had really bad reflux – so she was vomiting a lot of her feeds back up and also didn’t take very well to formula.
“The second woman who contacted me lived a little further away than the first, but her baby was born six weeks premature and was now four-months-old".
This mum struggled to breastfeed and the baby was fighting some health conditions.
“This was a lot closer to my heart as I know exactly what the mum went through and couldn’t imagine her pain not being able to feed her baby", Olivia explained.
As Oscar was eight months at that stage, Olivia started to feed him solely off one breast at night and pumped the remaining milk in the morning to store up.
She also pumped in the middle of his nap times to get some extra milk for Sophie, the sick baby.
“These sessions I was able to pump for seven to 10 minutes and get 5oz each time. This is something I almost feel embarrassed to share as so many women struggle to get that amount”, she admitted.
Olivia stored her milk in the freezer and was meticulous about hygiene.
“I felt a lot of pressure to make sure I cleaned my breast pump thoroughly in-between every use and made sure every 5oz bag I pumped went straight in the freezer so there was no chance of any of it being left out too long”, she explained.
After two weeks, Olivia had pumped an incredible 150oz of milk and met up with the mum of little baby Sophie to give it to her.
“I’m so glad I was able to give back and do something for the premature community”, she said.
Olivia said if Oscar were younger, she would consider donating again, however, he needs less breast milk now.
What an incredibly caring and thoughtful act – no doubt Sophie’s mum is very grateful to her.
