Milk Donation for #YolandaPH - Where your milk goes

Let me start this post by listing down places where you can donate your milk.

In Davao City, here are the contact persons:

Moms in Cagayan de Oro can also donate breastmilk and you can see where in the poster below.

Plus more:
1. Favorita Store at 1718 JR Borja Ext., Sta. Cecilia Village Gusa.
2. Ororama Cogon Superstore -store hours

Cebu moms can donate milk to Dr. Lilibeth Espinosa at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center NICU.

For Metro Manila,drop off your milk at the following locations:
Makati Human Milk Bank
1126 E. Rodriguez Ave. Cor. MH Del Pilar St. Bangkal Makati City
09486509194/09275619889

Alay Gatas Headquarters Human Milk Bank
Philippine Children’s Medical Center, Quezon Avenue, Quezon City
(02)924-6601 to 25 loc. 288

Dr. Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital
Lope de Vega, Sta. Cruz, Manila
(02) 734-5561 loc. 156

The Medical City Lactation Unit
The Medical City, Ortigas Avenue
(02) 635-6789 loc. 6720

St. Luke's Medical Center Lactation Unit
8th floor North Wing, Bonifacio Global City
(02) 789-7700 loc. 7118 

The Medela House,
29 1st St., New Manila, Quezon City
(02) 725-3723

If you noticed, I excluded UP-PGH Milk Bank in the list because they are simply inundated with calls and donations.  In normal conditions, you can donate milk at the UP-PGH Milk Bank. However, during these times, on top of preparing and pasteurizing the milk, they also have to coordinate distribution.  Hence, drop offs will now be focused on other locations and milk will be transported to UP-PGH Milk Bank when they are ready to pasteurize.

Once More: No Milk Donations During Calamities

Every time there is a calamity in the Philippines, I have to share posts on my Facebook and Twitter accounts about the prohibition on milk donations.  This time, I feel that a blog post is in order because I saw these posts on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151975909124911&set=a.58908059910.66243.645444910&type=1

Newborns and infants are, probably, the most vulnerable in times of tragedy.

Let us help some of them who have no access to breastmilk. Since

powdered formula milk is prohibited due to lack of clean water, pre-mix formula 

is the best option. Unfortunately, one of the biggest drugstores here

in the Philippines does not sell pre-mix. 

To our kababayans abroad who have the means to acquire premix formula,

may the spirit of bayanihan be with you. From drop off points, all donations will be sent to Philippine Red Cross. For transparency, please label your donations with your names.

Preferred package: pre-mix formula with disposable teats/nipples

(There is no water and electricity to sterilize bottles.)

Compilation of Emergency Posts - Again - No Formula Milk Donations Please!

I have written several posts about breastfeeding during emergencies and calamities.  They are spread out through 4-5 years.  In this post, I will attempt to compile them so you can easily click and refer to the ones relevant to you.

For breastfeeding moms, a top worry during storms would be brownouts especially on how these affect frozen breastmilk.  Visit my post "Brownouts and Breastmilk" to read how you can preserve your breastmilk during power outages and information on refreezing milk.

Long Distance Travel with Breastmilk

Traveling with breastmilk is a top concern of mothers - especially those who have to go out of the country and still want to bring home their milk.  I have previously posted tips on traveling and expressing milk without baby and how to transport breastmilk via air (Asian travel).

My own experiences in transporting breastmilk involved air travel, dry ice and regular ice packs. For this post, I will share some tips on traveling with refrigerated breastmilk with travel time of about 6 hours and traveling with frozen breastmilk using dry ice.