Alicia Richman, a North Texas mother, has been awarded a Guinness World Record for donating breast milk.
Alicia Richman, 28, from Granbury, pumped over 86 gallons between June 2011 and March 2012 for donation to The Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas, a nonprofit that supplies neonatal intensive care units.
The vast quantity equates to 11,000 oz – to put it into context, a typical newborn’s feed is around 3oz.
Alicia Richman told CBS DFW: “I pumped at work, on vacations, in the car. And I never had to buy formula.”
She began donating shortly after giving birth to her son, now 19 months, when she found that she had managed to fill two freezers with pumped milk – far more than he would ever need.
Alicia Richman decided to put her extraordinary ability to good use and help premature and critically ill babies who could benefit from the nourishment human breast milk can provide over formula.
“I feel like God blessed me with plenty of milk and I need to do something special with it,” she said.
“There’s a need for it, little babies everywhere are sick and they need breast milk to survive, and I wanted to give them that.”
Director of The Mothers’ Milk Bank of North Texas, Amy Vickers, told the TV network: “Three ounces of donor human milk could be as much as nine feedings for a premature baby.”
Alicia Richman, who exceeded that existing record by 23 gallons, plans to try to beat her own record when she has a second child.
She has also challenged other mothers to attempt to beat it too, in the hope that more women will donate to breast milk banks.
