How to Ship Breast Milk With Dry Ice

Breast milk can be sent as a donation or for a long vacation.

Shipping breast milk may be necessary if you are donating milk to a couple that has adopted a child and would like to feed their newborn breast milk. You can also ship breast milk if you are going on vacation and would like a large supply. Stanford School of Medicine recommends that you use dry ice if you are traveling with breast milk on an airplane in order to keep it fresh.

Things You'll Need

• Bottles of breast milk
• Dry ice (2 lbs. per cooler)
• Styrofoam or plastic coolers to hold the breast milk and dry ice
• Newspapers
• Duct tape
• Markers
• Plastic bags that close securely

Instructions

1. Wrap the dry ice (2 lbs. per cooler) completely with the old newspaper. Place the wrapped dry ice on the bottom of your cooler.

2. Place bottles containing your breast milk into plastic bags and seal them, making sure they are closed properly. This will prevent them from leaking into the cooler in the event that the bottles break or the tops become loose.

3. Put the breast milk in the cooler. Place newspaper between the bags of bottles containing the breast milk and sides of the cooler and on top of the milk.

4. Close the cooler and tape it shut with duct tape. Use several pieces of the tape to make sure the cooler stays closed.

5. Take the cooler filled with the breast milk to the post office. Label it with your name, the name of the recipient and a label that says "Frozen Milk". You can make this label yourself or ask the post office to make one for you.

6. Send the breast milk. Infertility Answers suggests that you send the milk overnight on a Monday through Thursday to ensure someone will be able to receive the milk.

Tips & Warnings

• Breast milk should never be stored on the door of a refrigerator or freezer.

References

• Stanford School of Medicine: Breastmilk Storage, 2008
• Infertility Answers: All About Breast Milk