Ever heard of hyperlactation syndrome? The rare medical condition causes the body to produce an oversupply of breastmilk.
And Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra is suffering from it. Since welcoming her baby eight years ago, the mom-of-three has been donating buckets and buckets of breast milk to babies in need.
She explained to PEOPLE:
In a typical breastfeeding journey, there’s a cycle of hormones produced that produce the prolactin that makes milk supply. In my case, I have an enlarged pituitary gland and it secretes far above what is normal. With this ridiculous excess of prolactin, my body will just make milk on its own. And if I’m not pumping to relieve the pressure or the supply that my body is making, then things start to happen like tissue inflammation or mastitis or developing abscesses.
It can be a really painful condition, so while it’s great she’s able to donate all this milk, it has certainly come with a price.
Anderson-Sierra recently set the Guinness World Record for the largest donation of breastmilk by a single individual, donating over 420 gallons.
I didn’t realize how much I would need to completely change my lifestyle to be able to accommodate the syndrome. In the beginning, the time spent doing everything that needed to be done was significantly longer because of what was available as far as equipment and technology at the time. I was pumping about eight to 10 times per day and each pumping session could be about 45 minutes to 60 minutes. Just pumping alone is equivalent to a full-time job, and that does not take into consideration things like washing and sterilizing equipment, bagging and freezing milk
And as you can imagine, when you’re producing that much milk, your body takes a beating. She has to be careful and really listen to her body.
Just two or three days ago, I hadn’t eaten enough soon enough. As I was heating something up in the microwave, I passed out and fell to the ground. And so they know what to do in an emergency situation like that.
The only cure for this condition? A double mastectomy. It’s an option she’s considering, but as of right now, she’s a little afraid to go through with the operation.
In the meantime, she’ll continue to donate her milk to those in need.
