Angela Plunkett says she began donating breast milk to the Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin because she was producing more than her daughter, Hannah, now 2, could consume -- and her freezer was full.

She resumed the time-consuming effort when Emma, now 8 months, was born.

"I had so much milk, I was uncomfortable," Plunkett says. "My first baby was a boy, and he would drink as much milk as I made. There was no over-production. But Hannah would nurse on one side and be satisfied, so I would pump the other side and freeze it for later, thinking production might slow down just when she started needing more."

But production remained high, and Plunkett already had a freezer full of milk in June 2000 when she saw a poster presentation on milk banking at a La Leche League area conference.

The presenter noted her interest and asked if she had any extra milk.

"I said, 'Actually, yes, I have a lot of extra milk,' " recalls Plunkett, a registered nurse and board-certified lactation consultant who worked full time at Harris Methodist H.E.B. hospital before her children were born.

"I had it, and I wasn't going to use it. My baby didn't need it. I decided it would be a good thing to help other babies get breast milk," says Plunkett, who lives in Argyle, near Denton. "I always say it's easier than donating blood. You don't get stuck with a needle every time."

Actually, milk donors do get stuck once, for a blood sample that is tested at an independent laboratory to make sure the donor is not carrying any viruses or contagious diseases.

"Before you are allowed to donate, you are screened exactly like you are before you can give blood," says Dr. Susan Sward, a neonatal intensive-care specialist who is leading efforts to organize a mothers' milk bank in North Texas. "You must have a referral interview, with a complete social and medical history.

"If you had your ears pierced in the last year, you can't donate. If you've gone to bed with anyone who has had his ears or anything else pierced, you can't donate for a year," Sward says.

If a woman smokes or drinks more than 2 ounces of liquor (or two beers) a day on a regular basis or uses certain medications, she is not allowed to donate.

Some established mothers' milk banks went out of business about 15 years ago when donor milk lost favor because of the fear of AIDS and hepatitis C.

Now that donors can be screened for those diseases and donor milk is pasteurized and frozen under strict conditions, there is less concern over contaminants and liability, and the idea of using mother's milk, especially for premature and sick newborns, is gaining popularity.

The American Academy of Pediatrics now recommends that mothers exclusively breast-feed their babies for the first six months, and the World Health Organization has declared: "Where it is not possible for the biological mother to breast-feed, the first alternative, if available, should be the use of human milk from other sources. Human milk banks should be made available in appropriate situations."

If a donor passes the screenings and receives permission from her doctor and her own baby's pediatrician, she is asked to collect 100 ounces of milk, freeze it and deliver it to the milk bank or one of two collection depots in North Texas: Harris Methodist H.E.B. in Bedford, or Presbyterian Hospital in Plano.

Volunteers use ice chests to transfer the milk from the depots to the Mothers' Milk Bank at Austin, where it is thawed, mixed with milk from three to five other donors (to ensure consistent fat content and a broad spectrum of immune factors) and pasteurized.

The pooled milk is tested for bacteria, refrozen and sent out to hospitals where it is prescribed for premature and sick infants whose own mothers are unable to nurse them.

So why do busy new mothers go to the effort of pumping, freezing and delivering this milk?

"The donor mothers are paid nothing. They do it just because they know it is so good for our tiny, sick babies," says Sward, one of several neonatologists who take care of the babies in the NICU at Harris Methodist and Cook Children's Medical Center.

"Not everyone can give milk, and it's not something I can keep doing for very long, but some babies have such a hard time getting started, and it's not costing me anything," says Plunkett. "I just think it's a neat thing to do. I am happy that I can do it."