A 36-year-old American woman donated more than 2,000 liters of breast milk. A world record which made it possible to feed nearly 350,000 premature babies, according to the American collection center.
Alyse Ogletree, a 36-year-old American, donated a record quantity of breast milk to charity which US authorities say would have been enough to feed hundreds of thousands of premature babies.
According to a count stopped in 2023, the mother, originally from Flower Mound in Texas, donated 2,645.58 liters of breast milk, indicates The Guardian.
“I have a big heart, but at the end of the day, I'm not made of money and I can't constantly give money to good causes because I have a family to support,” said Alyse Ogletree in Guinness World Records. But “giving milk was a way of doing the same.”
This isn't the first time Alyse Ogletree has entered her name in the Guinness World Records. In 2014, she had already donated 1,569.79 liters of milk, thus reaching the record for the largest donation of breast milk made by an individual.
“I pumped my milk every 3 hours”
Alyse Ogletree's crazy story begins in 2010, when she realized she was producing an abnormally high amount of milk after the birth of her first son, Kyle.
A hospital nurse then told her that she could donate her milk to collection centers helping premature infants. An idea that greatly appeals to the mother, who systematically decides to donate her breast milk at the end of her four pregnancies.
“I would pump every 3 hours, even at night, for 15 to 30 minutes. After pumping, I would freeze it until my freezer was full. Then I would take it to the milk bank who measured it on a special scale,” she told Guinness.
Alyse Ogletree is heading to two collection centers: the Mothers' Milk Bank in North Texas and the Tiny Treasures Milk Bank in California.
“I think I was just as excited about making a new donation as I was about expanding my family,” Alyse Ogletree told Guinness.
350,000 babies fed
According to the Mothers' Milk Bank, one liter of breast milk could have fed 11 premature babies. If this figure is correct, “I have helped more than 350,000 babies,” said Alyse Ogletree to Guinness.
For her part, Shaina Stanks, executive director of the Mothers' Milk Bank of North Texas, said in a statement that her center had been “amazed and in awe” of the way Alyse Ogletree had delivered “an exceptional quantity of breast milk to fragile infants.
“Alyse Ogletree's efforts to save these lives are a testament to her great generosity and extraordinary compassion,” added Shaina Stanks. Thanks to the visibility given by Guinness World Records, the American hopes to raise awareness among breastfeeding women and encourage them to donate their breast milk.
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