November 25, 2025
Freeze Drying Breast Milk: Podcast Episode #318
In this episode of the Ask the Doulas podcast, Kristin Revere sits down with Tirza Jova, CEO and founder of Milk by Mom, to explore the growing trend of freeze-drying breast milk. Tirza shares how her innovative service helps families preserve their milk safely and conveniently—reducing waste, saving freezer space, and providing peace of mind for travel or long-term storage.
We dive into how the freeze-drying process works, who can benefit most, and what parents should know when considering this option. Tirza also opens up about her journey launching Milk by Mom and why this method is becoming a game-changer for busy parents.
Whether you’re pumping, storing, or simply curious about new lactation support options, this episode offers practical insights and empowering information for every stage of your feeding journey.
This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Use the code GOLDCOAST to receive a discount in addition to their Black Friday sales.
Hello, hello! This is Kristin Revere with Ask the Doulas, and I am thrilled to chat with Tirza Jova today. She is the CEO and founder of Milk by Mom, and her background is incredible.
She founded Milk by Mom to empower breastfeeding mothers. Freeze drying is a well-studied, clinically proven method of storing breastmilk that isn’t well known among the mom community or many others. I love that we’re getting right into the heart of what Tirza does, and as a mom of two with a full-time job, she knows the decisions and sacrifices breastfeeding moms face because she navigates them daily.
Tirza wanted to help by expanding the service to the mom and caregiver community, and she shares her knowledge and experience with this great alternative when it comes to milk storage and transportation. Tirza holds an MBA and has more than 15 years of experience in international business and marketing. She spent the better half of the last decade working in the medical device industry, helping to bring products to market that help to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.
She is now focused on helping to educate and bring freedom and flexibility to moms and caregivers alike, not only across the US, but across the country through her breastmilk freeze drying business.
Welcome, Tirza!
Thank you so much for having me on, Kristin! I’m excited to chat today!
I love your story! And as we chatted before we started recording – moms get things done, and you saw a need and knew the struggle with pumping at work and traveling, obviously, in your career. So it is a common question I get from my childbirth education students and doula clients, wanting more resources about that transition back to work. And of course, there are pumping laws that protect us in the workplace and dedicated pumping rooms now compared to when I had kids. A lot of those things weren’t a possibility, depending on the state you lived in.
Yeah, I think it’s still such a part of our society that has a ways to go. I’m so glad to see how far it’s come, but I would say we’re hardly where it needs to be. And that’s really, like you mentioned – I mean, that’s one of the biggest reasons why I myself saw breastmilk freeze drying as such a solution. As a woman, I think so many of us start our businesses from a problem we encounter firsthand, and then we’re like, hey, we got to do something about it. That’s really where Milk by Mom was born. Truly, I had this problem myself. I was traveling. I was trying to figure out how to travel with milk and my baby, and I was going on a three-week long work trip. It was challenging! How do you travel with that much milk? I discovered breastmilk freeze drying and was completely blown away by the convenience and flexibility it provided me. It was a game changer!
Fast forward, here we are. Milk by Mom was born!
With the holidays approaching, maybe some of our listeners don’t normally travel but they are to see family and friends over the holiday season. I would love to hear your take on getting through security with breastmilk, how to transport and even ways to store if you’re in a hotel and not in a family member’s home. Let’s get into some of those common questions.
I love it. Well, first, I would just say for travel, this is a game changer. It really is the ultimate mom hack. It’s literally like having a little pouch – it’s a mylar pouch that you zip it open, break the seal, open it up, pour it in with water, and you constitute it and it’s your breastmilk with all the nutrients preserved, all the enzymes, all that healthy gut biome stuff that you want to be preserving in the milk. And you just add water, so it’s like the convenience of formula with it. So when it comes to TSA, it’s TSA approved. I mean, it’s seamless, right? You just go straight through TSA. There’s no problem. We have two types of pouches. We have small, on-the-go pouches for five to six ounces, and then we have a larger pouch that’s like 50 ounces in one and it comes with a scooper and a chart so that you can make any size bottle you want. So for travel, it really just kind of depends. Are you going for a quick trip where you just need these on the go, or are you going to be staying with family or even in a hotel for, let’s say, a week, and a big pouch makes sense. But it’s really, truly convenient from a TSA perspective. There’s no challenges. It’s just one more thing, like a pack of wipes in the diaper bag, that just goes with you and is ready to be made the moment your baby needs it.
And for those that are traveling without their infant or toddler, how do they freeze dry it on the go and bring it back if they just want to pump and have an effective way to store and transport?
Yeah, that’s a great question. So one of the things that we offer is we can coordinate with moms – let’s say they’re going, like you said, on a trip without the baby and they’re going to be pumping. So we can coordinate to have a cooler sent to their destination so they can ship it back, and then it would come to our facility. It’s shipped overnight. We use UPS Healthcare, which provides us with RFID tracking on all our shipments, which is extra peace of mind. And then we just send it back to them in powder form, shelf stable. It’s a really great solution if you don’t have the baby but are still pumping and you’re at a place – I would say you want to be at a place long enough to build up a sufficient stash for it to be worth it financially, also, from an investment perspective, because we are shipping back overnight, right? So I would say anything more than 4 or 5 nights totally makes a ton of sense. If it’s just a couple nights, it might not be worth it.
Okay, so a short weekend conference would not necessarily be worth it, but a longer work trip of about a week would make sense?
Yeah. Our minimums, our smallest orders are 40 ounces. Every mom is different, so for some moms, being able to pump 40 ounces is a significant amount of time versus if somebody has a very large supply or tends to overproduce. That might be something that’s feasible within three days. So it really comes down to the specific person. But I would just kind of gauge it. If you’re close to 40 ounces, that’s definitely worth it. That’s the smallest order. And one of the things that’s great is let’s say you send less or you send a little bit more. If you send less than when you paid for, you’ll always get a refund. So you only pay for the amount of milk that you send. So it’s not a sunk cost. If you send less, we’ll reimburse you for whatever you didn’t send.
I love that. So helpful. And it saves so much room in the freezer with this method! I mean, not everyone has a second freezer in their home for storage, so with the compact storage that you have versus taking the big bags and trying to store and worrying about, say, a power outage – the way your setup is, it seems to be so much more efficient.
Yeah, I mean, that’s absolutely one of the reasons when we will say it makes a ton of sense. If you live in an area that’s natural disaster prone or electricity can be unreliable due to external forces, that makes a ton of sense. Kristin, as you mentioned earlier, I’m a mom of two girls, so I’ve definitely lived the journey first hand and the sacrifice that comes with pumping is significant. The amount of hours, the sleepless nights, the commitment to it. Truly, the thought of losing any sort of milk, whether it be from a natural disaster – or in my case, I had someone that carelessly left two bricks out, and that was a lot of milk for me. Another time, I found that my deep freezer, the electrical power had tripped, so I found it in slushy form, which per the CDC, I was able to refreeze. I definitely came to those experiences and experienced them firsthand. Certainly, if you have a big enough stash, it’s just a wonderful way to be able to preserve your milk in a way that takes away a little bit of the stressors that also come with the what-if potentials.
Also, you alluded to it at the very beginning. Breast milk freeze drying preserves over 98% of all the nutrients, antibodies, and enzymes in your milk. It is a superior method of preserving milk than just sticking it in your freezer. Imagine if you throw a piece of steak in it. And I say that with the caveat of saying, hey, per the CDC, depending on your freezer type, it can still be 6 to 12 months, right? So I want to be very clear about that. But if you think about anything you put in the freezer, the longer it’s frozen, the nutritional value declines. And milk is not exact. So when you’re freeze drying it, you’re locking in the nutrition at that point in time, which is amazing. Also, it’s good for three years instead of 6 to 12 months. That allows you to continue to be able to provide the benefits of breastmilk. If your child starts kinder or pre-kinder and all of a sudden they come home and it’s flu season and all the kids are snotty – I have a couple packets still that I’ll crack open when they need a little immune boost, and you can add that into smoothies, on top of yogurt. You can sprinkle it on a bunch of different things to give them that nutritional boost. So I really love it. We also have had, including myself, I’ve had some milk that I used for my second. Depending on where you are in your child-rearing years, if you’re planning on having more kids, it’s also a really great way to be able to have a little bit of milk on standby.
And to be able to give it to people in your community. Let’s say your dad can pick up, or you’re fortunate enough to live next to mom, or if you have daycare – you can have those little packets in different places to allow others to really come in and support you and you don’t have to be the sole source of nutrition.
Yes. And you mentioned how easy it is, so if you have caregivers, whether it’s daycare or a nanny or grandparents – describe the process of the transition. It seems very similar to formula?
You’re spot on. It’s just like formula, right? And I think daycares love us exactly for those reasons, and everyone else. All you do is, if you have these individual packets and you have it at 5 ounces, you just pour the packet into a bottle and then get a customized amount of water to add to that, however much your label says of water. So let’s say it’s 5 ounces generally, or might be around 4.3 or 4.4 ounces of water. You add that in, and then you swirl it, and within 20 seconds, the milk is rehydrated, and it’s your milk with all its goodness, ready for baby. So definitely daycares and caregivers love us. So do dads in the middle of the night, or grandparents.
And I remember when you were relying on somebody else: “Okay, this is how you properly thaw the milk. This is how you properly reheat it.” You can’t thaw it in overly hot water because you’ll kill off all the good stuff, and once it’s been thawed, you have to use it within 24 hours. There was always a little bit of making sure that people knew how to do it. And once they get the hang of it, it’s pretty straightforward, but there’s nuances. I just feel like this kind of takes all the guessing out of it, and it’s really easy. As you mentioned, it’s the convenience of formula, but all the goodness of your breastmilk.
I love it so much. And you mentioned the donation aspect. So if you know you’re finished having kids and you have a stash of freeze dried milk left over, then that is a similar process to donating pumped milk, correct?
It really depends. I’ve heard of instances where parents who have had extra have found that their local NICU will accept. I think that’s on a case by case basis. What I’ve heard a lot is mamas who have leftovers and then have a friend or somebody else they know of who needs milk, and so they’ll give them some of their milk. You hear that often. It’s very easy to donate it to people who need milk. Milk banks and NICUs kind of depend on where they are. This isn’t widespread yet, so some of them are less familiar with it and they may or may not accept it. But you certainly can always find a mom or a friend of a friend who needs donor milk who will gladly accept it, and that’s what I hear of very often.
I love it. Tirza, what are your tips for our listeners and doula clients who are interested in exploring this option as far as what to do to prepare? Any gadgets or gear that would be helpful to go along with your system?
I want to tackle this in two ways. First, I would say for anybody that’s listening, regardless of whether you are a doula or actually a client, I think it’s so important to truly understand your breastmilk. And by that I mean knowing whether or not you have high lipase. I can’t tell you how many times you hear of moms who pump and then they finally go back to work, and they discover they have high lipase and baby rejects their frozen breastmilk. I think it’s so important early on to know because power is knowledge. Also knowing that freeze drying can help if you have high lipase, so it is an option, and there are several that you can explore. That’s a whole different conversation. Freeze drying really does help a lot of mamas who have high lipase whose babies reject their frozen breastmilk. It just makes the effect of the enzyme milder. And also when you freeze dry it, you take the water out of the milk, and that deactivates the enzyme. That’s really helpful.
And then ultimately, as with anyone who’s storing any sort of milk, you might not realize it at the beginning and you kind of start to store it however you freeze it, but the flatter you freeze it, the better. Not only to maximize your current existing storage space within your freezer, but certainly if you’re ever going to consider freeze drying, it’s great to have it. You’ll be able to fit it in much more nicely when you’re packing coolers or anything along those lines. So I think that would really be my advice when it comes to using the service. It’s just figuring out if this is going to be the right fit for you. And there’s so many different use cases. Let’s say you have a good amount of milk, and you don’t want to invest in a deep freezer. Let’s say you’re going on a trip and you want to have enough so that you don’t have to worry about traveling with coolers and ice packs and just being able to be more flexible on the go – then just do a smaller stash, right? Maybe you’re a mom who has high lipase and so then you know that this is an option that exists for you. So there’s a lot of different use cases. I don’t like to fit it like one size fits all.
And ultimately, once you have some frozen breastmilk, that’s all you basically need. You place your order. You put in the estimated amount you want. If you send any less, you will get refunded. If you send any more, we have a grace window of ten ounces, and then if it’s more than that, we will charge you for the upside. And then aside from that, the process is pretty smooth. It gets overnighted to us. We weigh it when we receive it. Then we weigh it again without plastic, and that’s the weight that we use when we’re making sure in terms of the cost and the fee. And then you get it back in powder form. So there isn’t a whole ton that you need to do, but I do love to say that my number one tip is to taste your milk. Make sure that you don’t have high lipase, and if you do, then figure out if your baby is going to be one of those babies that likes to use it or will drink it just as is, and if not, you have different options at your fingertips.
So good to know! And what would be the average investment as far as our listeners who are potentially looking at saving for this service?
So it is a charge per ounce. It really does depend on the person’s size of the stash. So our starter stash, 40 ounces, comes out to about $75, and that is plus shipping. And then I would just say that the shipping cost kind of varies based on weight and size, but our larger pouches are a dollar per ounce, and then the bigger ones vary anywhere between $1.30 to $1.75 per ounce, and we do combos that has in the middle sort of price range. So the cost really depends on how much you have, but you can always reach out to us. We’re happy to provide you a custom quote. You can go on the website and take a look at it and put in your zip code and it will tell you how much shipping would be so that you can figure out where you want to land from an investment perspective. And I would say if you follow us on Milk by Mom on Instagram or all the social media channels or visit our website and join our mailing list, you’ll be notified of sales. We’re constantly running sales. We have our biggest sale of the year coming up for Black Friday. If you’re interested, I would definitely maximize the sale because it is our largest sale of the year. There’s always an opportunity to save. And certainly, reach out to us. First and foremost, we’re moms. I got into this business truly to help moms, so we like to work as much as possible with our clients to be able to make sure that they can also enjoy the benefits of the service.
I love it. And I’m sure people are even registering for your service rather than all the onesies and baby gear. This would be an amazing gift for a shower!
Yeah, absolutely! And we have gift cards, and we’ll be having a discount on gift cards, also, coming up during Black Friday. It is an amazing registry gift!
So Tirza, do health savings and flex spending cover this at this point?
Yeah, we actually do accept HSA and FSA payments. We partner with True Med, who helps to provide a letter of medical necessity where you can get reimbursed for the cost of service. We offer payment plans. So we really try to accommodate as many different situations as possible.
Excellent. Any other tips for our listeners?
Let me think. I don’t know if a tip, but I would just say enjoy it. Motherhood is beautiful, and sometimes when you’re in the throes of it, it can feel so daunting, but it truly is such a gift, and to really trust yourself because your intuition more times than not is right on the money. So just know that you are what your baby needs more than anything else. Sometimes there’s so much noise on the outside, but as long as you’re wrapping your baby with love and being able to give them food or breastmilk, that’s what’s most important.
I agree, 100%. So you mentioned your website, and you’re all over socials, as you mentioned, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. So tell us how we can connect with you.
Yes, please follow us along at Milk by Mom on all the different social media channels. And if you have any questions, you can go ahead and email us at info@milkbymom. And also Kristin, I would love to be able to give your listeners a discount today. So if you want, we can go ahead and give them 15% off their first order. What would you like your discount code to be?
GOLDCOAST would be excellent!
Amazing! So we’ll do that. We’ll do GOLDCOAST15, and we’ll have it open for a couple months!
Excellent! What a gift! Thank you so much, and we’ll have to have you back on Ask the Doulas in the future!
I would love that! If you get questions, we can have a second follow up!
Will do! Thank you so much, and we will talk soon!
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