One of the best baby gifts Nicole and I received was a donation in our honor to La Leche League by Tanya, Sinead, Andi, and Jennifer. I was touched by the thoughtful gift, and pleased that one of my favorite charities would benefit.
Gift Matching for Donations to La Leche League
If you are thinking of making a year-end donation to charity this year, give to La Leche League now and your tax-deductible gift will be doubled by generous donors! Long-time supporters and La Leche League International (LLLI) Board and staff will match your donation dollar-for-dollar, up to $50,000, between now …read more

In conjunction with International Volunteer Day December 5, 2008, I challenge all Breastfeeding 1-2-3 readers and their breastfeeding advocate friends to choose a volunteer activity to support breastfeeding. Start thinking what you would like to do between now and December 5 to celebrate International Volunteer Day. I’ll remind you again over the coming months, and check in on December 5 to see how you decided to volunteer to support breastfeeding! I have come up with 20 ideas to get you started. Leave a comment with more ideas, or share a link to your own post on International Volunteer Day and …read more

If you have new or used (but current) breastfeeding, parenting, childbirth, or pregnancy books that you no longer need, why not pass them on for a good cause, and maybe even get a tax deduction in the process? Here are five ways to share your breastfeeding books to benefit other mothers (and the environment).
1. Donate pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, and parenting books to your local La Leche League library. LLL groups have free lending libraries, usually allowing mothers to check out books for a month at a time. If you’re not sure whether a book is on the approved LLL list, …read more

No reply from eBay yet on this post. Breast milk has not been added to the group of prohibited and restricted items but the one open listing for human breast milk has been removed. Even though I did not directly alert eBay to that listing, I feel a slight twinge of guilt about my question leading to its removal. The seller is probably a very nice breastfeeding mother who simply had some extra milk. I hope she knows about one of the non-profit milk banks and considers donating her breast milk there.
The former tax lawyer in me wondered …read more

The story of Jill Youse’s donation of breast milk to an orphanage in South Africa has drawn greater attention to milk donation both domestically and internationally. Mothers considering milk donation within the United States should investigate their options carefully. Jennifer at The Lactivist called my attention to the discussion of Prolacta in the today’s Miami Herald. Prolacta is a for-profit company that processes breast milk donations and sells them for considerable profit. The article quotes one source:
“My big issue is that mothers are not being told that their milk is being sold for such a high amount,” said Katy Lebbing …read more

Long before I joined the b5media group, some of its esteemed bloggers were writing individual posts on the subject of breastfeeding. Click through and enjoy this sampling of what b5 has to offer!
Kate at Babylune:

Reports on whether breastfeeding raises a child’s IQ
Talks about iodine requirements for the breastfeeding mother
Discusses the idea of putting warning labels on formula
Offers tips on how to stay hydrated
Gives another resource about medications and breast milk

Hsien at Genetics and Health:

Discusses how a mother’s genes affect her milk production

At Inside Motherhood:

Robin tells about her own experience donating breast milk
Jean comments on the furor over a BabyTalk magazine cover …read more