Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra, a mother of two, has been donating her breast milk for the past two-and-a-half years — and she's donated a total of about 600 gallons of milk to families in need.
According to People, Anderson-Sierra has a condition known as hyper lactation syndrome, which causes her to produce extra breast milk. Since her eldest daughter was born, she has been pumping milk to donate to others. While her six-month-old daughter currently consumes about 20-28 ounces of milk a day, Anderson-Sierra told People that she produces about 225 ounces a day, roughly 1.7 gallons.
In a post on Facebook shared to the Breastfeeding Mama Talk page, Anderson-Sierra wrote that she had no idea that her body would produce so much milk after giving birth to her first daughter, and eventually signed up with milk banks to donate her milk as a way to give back.
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"This is my way of being active in my community and giving back to humanity, and so it’s my labor of love," she told People.
Of course, using donor breast milk can come with risks, but Anderson-Sierra wrote in her Facebook post that she went through a detailed vetting process with the milk banks to ensure that her milk was safe. (The FDA also recommends speaking to your doctor first before deciding to use donor breast milk.)
Anderson-Sierra spends about four to five hours a day pumping, something she became motivated to do after giving birth to her second daughter and realizing just how important it can be, especially for those whom breastfeeding might not come as naturally.
"My body was just exhausted so she had to have donor milk for the first couple of feedings," she told People. "[That experience] did help fuel my passion and my desire even further to continue to donate milk, because I was in that situation myself."
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