By donating her breast milk, Kaleena is able to still pay an active part in her daughter’s life.
When Kaleena Pysher was 18 years old and in her final year of high school, she discovered she was pregnant. Soon after, she decided to give the baby up for adoption.
Although a family friend adopted Kaleena’s daughter, she has ended up helping the adopted parents in raising the baby girl.
“I would trust her with my life,” Kaleena told Alaska Dispatch News of the adoptive mother.
“I would trust her with my baby. She will get quality love, parental guidance and a good education. She wouldn’t be able to get that with me.”
Kaleena says she was overcome with joy when her daughter was born, describing the moment as “the greatest feeling”.
She arranged an open adoption so that Kaleena could play an active role in her daughter’s upbringing.
Her daughter’s new parents bought Kaleena a breast pump and offered to pay to transport the breast milk as the infant had a ferocious appetite.
Soon, Kaleena was pumping every two hours, even throughout the night. So she decided to put the excess breast milk to use and donate it to a milk bank in Colorado to supply a neonatal intensive care unit.
Watch Kaleena’s story here. Post continues below.
Now that Kaleena’s daughter is weaning off the breast milk – with the adoptive parents supplementing the milk with formula – Kaleena says she is disappointed the adoptive parents won’t need her as much anymore.
“As long as I’m still giving them breast milk, they still need me for something. (The baby) still needs me,” she says.
“But now that I’m tapering off, I feel like they’re not going to need me anymore.”
However, her arrangement with her daughters’ new parents mean that Kaleena will continue to play an active role in her daughter’s life.
