When Milk Donation is Bittersweet

March 11, 2020

After her baby, Sebastian, passed away, Carmen decided to become a donor to help other babies. She and her husband, Jose, recently came by the milk bank to drop off a full cooler. A week later, they came back to place Sebastian’s leaf on our wall memorial located in our reception room called Carmen’s Tree.

Like Sebastian’s, each leaf is engraved with a baby’s first name and birthdate. His joins hundreds of leaves representing babies whose mothers wanted to do something special and life-saving for fragile infants by donating breastmilk. The tree is named after the first baby, Carmen, whose mother donated milk when the milk bank opened in 2004.

Being a part of this moment with Carmen and Jose touched our hearts. We cannot imagine their pain, but we honor them as parents who through extraordinary generosity, are helping other families in need.