Woman From Wisconsin Donates 500oz Of Her Breastmilk To Milk Bank For Moms In Need After Miscarrying

Jan 19, 2020

Sierra Strangfeld, from Neillsville in Wisconsin, turned her personal tragedy into a way to help others. When she was 20 weeks pregnant, she learned her fetus was affected by a serious genetic condition called Edwards syndrome, also known as trisomy 18.

With trisomy 18, instead of the normal two copies of chromosome 18, the fetus has three copies of the chromosome, states the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The condition means most affected fetuses die before birth; a tiny percentage with less severe malformations make it to birth but die shortly afterward. Sierra had the fetus delivered by cesarean section and as expected, Samuel only survived for three hours.

The birth triggered her to start lactating so she decided, why not turn this into something good for someone? She starting pumping her breast milk and managed to produce 500 ounces (almost five liters) of milk to donate to others in need, reports The Indian Express.

Sierra said in a Facebook post: "It was something I could control. I couldn’t control Samuel’s diagnosis. I couldn’t control his life, or his death. But I could control what I did afterwards. It was the last, physical thing connecting me to him here on Earth. I couldn’t save Samuel’s life, but by donating my milk, maybe I could help save another baby’s life."

Donated breast milk is often used in the neonatal intensive care unit to feed premature babies. According to Tommy's, many women who deliver prematurely never begin to lactate, which is particularly unfortunate since feeding preemies natural human breast milk can prevent some of the complications they can experience due to leaving the womb too soon.

This sad yet heartwarming story of a woman who turned a personal tragedy into a good deed deserves to be discussed with everyone you know.

All photos were used with the explicit permission of Sierra Strangfeld.