This story was originally reported by Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and republished through Rewire News Group‘s partnership with the 19th News Network.

Erika Nyhus thought she was done having children. The mother of two had required medical intervention to become pregnant in the past, and she’d been told that the breast cancer treatment she’d completed would further diminish her fertility. 

Then two-and-a-half years ago, feeling rundown after returning home from a family trip, she took a pregnancy test out of an abundance of caution. She assumed it would be negative. 

Her husband was outside their home in Maine, playing in the snow with the kids. She called him inside to show him the test: positive. 

“We were in total disbelief,” she recalled. She was 43 at the time.

Nyhus knew that when the baby came, she wouldn’t be able to breastfeed the way she had with her first two—treating her cancer had required a lumpectomy on her right side, a procedure in which doctors had removed part of her right breast. She would be able to produce some breastmilk, but not enough to feed a growing child.

So early in her pregnancy, Nyhus met with lactation consultants and began searching online for information. The latter led her to a Facebook group, where, at the end of her second trimester, she posted looking for someone who might be able to help. A woman, due within three weeks of her and living about 45 minutes away, responded. She’d produced more milk than she needed with her first child, and offered to donate any extra breastmilk she produced to Nyhus.

Federal health regulators don’t advise using milk from unscreened donors, especially those new parents might meet online. There are risks of milk contamination if it’s not stored properly, or of infection based on a donor’s medical history. 

But for people like........

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