Community Corner

Bolingbrook Mom Sets Guinness Record for Donating Breast Milk

From February 2008 to September 2013, Amelia Boomker donated more than 16,000 ounces of breast milk.

BOLINGBROOK, IL. — Amelia Boomker has donated the equivalent of 816 Venti Starbucks lattes or 241 two-liter bottles of Coca-Cola — in breast milk.

The Bolingbrook mom of four said she didn't even realize breast milk could be donated until she had her first son, Danny, in 2008.
 
Danny was born with a congenital heart defect. For the first six month of his life, he had to be tube-fed, Boomker said.

"He didn't drink very much because he was a heart baby," she said. Since she was pumping more milk than he could drink, nurses at Hope Children's Hospital suggested she donate it.

Initially, she donated to Wakemed Mother's Milk Bank in North Carolina. 

How it works is that fully screened and approved mothers provide donated milk, which is then pasteurized, to milk banks. Doctors can write prescriptions for babies that could benefit from breast milk, such as infants in the NICU.

“They started sending me liter bottles because I producing so much milk. I would send up to 14 at a time!” Boomker said.

Today, after four surgeries, Danny is 9 years old and doing well — but Boomker's breast-milk donation efforts didn't stop with him. 

Boomker continued to donate after the births of three more sons, sending donations to the Indiana Mothers' Milk Bank.The organization provides donor milk to hospitals in seven Midwestern states.

For five years, Boomker sent expressed milk in coolers packed with dry ice and dropped off donations at some of the IMMB’s depots in the Chicago area. The milk bank has depot locations in seven states for donors to drop off milk.

“The milk donations we receive are delivered to hospitals throughout the Midwest to provide live-saving nourishment to newborns who are critically ill in Neonatal Intensive Care Units,” says Carissa Hawkins, communication coordinator at IMMB. “Amelia’s donations helped save many young lives on the way to setting the world record.”

Boomker said after her fourth son was born, her husband saw a woman on the "Today" show who was the current Guinness World Record holder after donating 11,000 ounces.

"At that point, I already had 17,000 ounces," Boomker said with a laugh.

Although Wakemed Milk Bank was unable to provide documentation for her donations after the birth of son Danny, Boomker was still able to break the record with a whopping 16,321 ounces.

She learned on Feb. 28 that she is now the official record-holder.

Read about Boomker on the Guinness World Records website.

Boomker said she attributes some of her breast milk production success to a flexible employer that lets her pump long-term on a consistent daily schedule.

“The Indiana Mothers’ Milk Bank’s choice to open milk depots was brilliant," she added. "I wish they would open more in the Chicago area! It was so easy for me to drive up to the hospital and drop off my donation."




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