Producing too much breast milk for your baby
Occasionally women make more breast milk than their babies can consume.
If this happens to you, we advise you to speak your midwife, health visitor or breastfeeding specialist to watch a feed to see if they can spot why this is happening. They can also show you different positions to help your baby cope with large amounts of milk.
Where necessary and if possible, we encourage and support our mothers to provide their own breast milk to their sick and premature baby, as research demonstrates a reduction in infection and other problems due to its unique composition and special anti-infective properties. This increases the baby's chances of survival and can help their long-term development.
Donating your milk
If you produce too much breast milk you may want to consider donating the excess milk. Donated milk can be given to neonatal babies or to other mothers who are establishing their own milk supply or unable to provide their own milk to their babies due to illness or separation.
There is a human milk bank at Birmingham Women’s Hospital. This is the only human milk bank in the West Midlands, and provides donor milk for babies locally as well as further afield.
Who can donate breast milk?
Mothers who have established breast feeding with their own baby and find they have more milk than their babies need are eligible to be donors.
You must enrol as a donor before your baby is 6 months old, and you can continue to donate until your baby is 12 months old.
On initial contact the milk bank team will ask some general questions about your health and lifestyle, and the health of your baby. There are certain factors which would exclude you from becoming a donor, such as smoking or taking certain prescribed medicine.
Blood tests are required to ensure infections or viruses will not be passed on via your milk. Although you will have blood tests during pregnancy, milk banks are required to take them again for their own records.
If you would like more information about donating or have any questions, please contact the human milk bank.
Last reviewed: 28 June 2023