Everyone has their own way of dealing with grief and tragedy, and when one new mom’s newborn baby passed away at just 11 days old, she decided to donate as much of her breast milk as possible.
“When my breast milk came in I was pumping a whole lot. I decided right away to donate it, because I knew he wasn’t going to make it,” said Ariel Matthews, who also donated 510 ounces of breast milk last year before after she gave birth to a stillborn baby.
“After I pumped 1000oz I decided to keep going and set another goal, which was to pump my body weight in breast milk. I got the idea from my dad. Well, I succeeded! All those ounces come out to about 148.1 lbs., which is more than I weigh,” Matthews wrote in an emotional post to her Instagram.
In total, Matthews was able to donate 2,370 ounces, or 18.5 gallons, of her breast milk to three mothers who could not produce their own milk. “Thanks to my sweet Ronan I was able to bless three babies with milk. After I empty out my freezer, 2,300 of those ounces will have been officially donated. I defiantly feel lucky to have been able to help babies stay healthy, and grow,” the stay-at-home mom of three-year-old Noah wrote.
“It felt really good to donate it all, especially because I would get hugs from the moms when they came to pick it up and thank yous. And that the moms were trusting me to give their babies my milk — it feels really good,” Matthews said. “If good things can come from a loss — if I can encourage people that this isn’t the end, we can get through this, and live a good life, and not let the bad things tear us down,” she says. “I like to know that there’s actually people being encouraged by this. I’ve even gotten messages on Facebook saying this has really helped me, that I hope I can be like this.”
Can you believe this mom’s selfless act? Let us know what you think in the comments below and please SHARE this with friends on Facebook.
[Featured image: Ariel Matthews]
Mom Donates 2,307 Ounces Of Breast Milk After Baby Dies is an article from: LifeDaily