to think that breastmilk should be sold in the supermarket?

[paranoid2android]

Wouldn't it make sense? Then every baby could benefit from breastmilk, even if their mums don't can't/don't want to breastfeed. Women could sell access breastmilk to 'farms' to stock the shops.It does strike me as being quite bizarre that we feed powdered milk from a cow to our children, that mothers sharing breastmilk would be seen as unusual.

There would be social issues with that in this country.

Also, what about screening? in a similar way blood is screened? It would be prohibitively expensive, I would have thought.

Is there that much excess breast milk out there?

Imagine the health & safety checks.

Better facilities should be available for women to donate to NICUs and other babies who desperately need the milk, but the thought of breast milk farms sounds like something out of a Margaret Atwood distopia.

But what if it really took off?

Would we have farms where women were kept pregnant or given hormones to increase supply....

I had a bountiful supply and had more than either DD or dS could drink, but still not sure it would have been enough to keep a supermarket in stock

The drugging comment might seem like a joke, but they drug women up for the sex trade, why not the breastmilk trade?

Who would police this?

Then every baby could benefit from breastmilk, even if their mums don't can't/don't want to breastfeed.

Also - not every woman wants to use breast milk, their own or donated.

I now have visions of some lactating shed where women are hooked up to milking machines...

Then of course there is the transportation and sterilisation issue.

troisgarcons - sorry what do you mean exactly by social issues?

according to my breastfeeding book (by Ina May Gaskin) women don't have to have even been pregnant in order to lactate. Hence my thinking.

Sure there would be a lot of health and safety checks - same as making sure cows milk is safe to drink in supermarkets, or any other product, and yes Folk Girl, I don't think 1 cow would supply all the milk available in a Sainsburys, so would need more than 1 woman, and 'farm' is in inverted commas as obviously no woman would literally have to live on the farm!!

yes, donate to SCBU

breast milk farming is a truly horrid thought

paranoid I mean BF-ing isn't seen as universally acceptable in this country. I cant see another womans breast milk being socially acceptable to feed to your child.

Maybe I'm wrong and I'll be told otherwise.

Consuming the breast milk from a woman who isn't in contact with the baby doesn't have the same level of health benefits.

The extra breast milk that is currently available is needed for ill babies in hospital. It shouldn't be diverted away from that for commercial reasons.

Some people do set up private arrangements to buy breast milk.

Ok I get you, did not really know that breastfeeding was somehow 'unnacceptable' to some people, maybe I'm being naiive, I haven't met many of these people myself.

You're not being unreasonable to want to every baby to avoid the risks of not being breastfed but you're being a bit unrealistic to expect supermarkets to stock breastmilk. In this country a lot of people don't even want to see a mother breastfeeding her own baby let alone feed their baby with milk produced from another humans body (from a big old dirty cow however it's fine ).

Besides, it's mum's own milk which has the most benefits. Donor milk is certainly better than formula but isn't anywhere near as good as the baby's own mother's milk.

The money and effort of collecting breastmilk and selling it in shops should be plouged into a programme of education and support for women to help them breastfeed their own babies. That would make a difference to public health.

But there would have to be some form of 'farm', to make checks, sterilisation, logistics of transportation remotely possible. It would be crazily expensive otherwise.

Out of interest would anybody who couldn't breastfeed have bought breast milk had it been commercially available at the same price as formula?

Cocoa, I saw a programme about gay parents, and gay men in New York had private arrangements with women to buy their breast milk. It was extremely expensive.

Are there 'risks' to not being breastfed RightUpMyRue? Of course there are benefits to being breastfed, but that is very different.

Wouldn't work at all for all the reasons above but I wish there were some kind of equivalent-when I was really struggling I remember thinking that if I could give her to a wet nurse for a feed just so she'd have SOME breast milk in her system I'd feel better. (But also, I imagine, crap to see her feeding from someone else. )

I don't think I would have bought breastmilk to be honest, I wanted to BF DD but couldn't for various reasons and was told by the midwife I needed to start FFing or DD would end up jaundiced. I wouldn't like the idea of someone else producing milk for my baby although I realise logically this makes no sense as now she is almost a year she gets cows milk as a drink and I have no problem with that, I suppose it would make me feel like more of a failure for not being able to produce enough milk for her myself.

Exactly MillyR, if it were popular then I'd imagine the demand would far outstrip supply if only made on a donation basis and then things could get nasty with black-market trading etc. Terrifying thought.

I have to go out for the first of my many family Christmas lunches now (yes, people on 4th Dec!), but look forward to reading more tonight. Good debate paranoid2android

pippa you've just stumbled upon it - the social accepotance of breast feeding. Wet nursing. Who had wet nurses? The monied and the aristocracy. It was social suicide to nurse your own child. Those values are pretty much ingrained although they are unspoken these days.

We might know the BFing is preferable (for most) but there are still a lot of people who wouldn't do it through choice.

Personally I didn't breast feed. Didn't want to. Despite much bullying from the ward midwives. I wouldnt be putting someone elses into them either. But thats my opinion and my right to hold that opinion.

Cocoa - there are no "benefits" to breastfeeding as it is the physiological norm but there are risks in formula feeding. I think tiktok has used the analogy of there being no benefit to using our lungs to breath with but risk in using alternative methods.
Disclaimer: this is not the same as saying formula is poison and the work of the devil before I get jumped on.

Pippandpolly, i think it was again in my breastfeeding book, that said that in some places wet nurses are coming back into fashion, though I'd be same as you if in that position, would feel quite upset about my baby feeding from somewhere else.
So if supermarket idea doesn't seem viable - perhaps making donated milk ore readily available to familiies that want it as in the gay dads scenario you saw on tV Milly. If more was available that would bring the price down.

I don't think commercialization is the answer! Who would financially gain from it? While I would donate milk to a scbu and would agree privately with a friend or whatever, once it becomes a business decision I would want far more money than I am sure the supermmarkets would be willing to pay me. So who would make it worth the while of all these women?

paranoid I don't think you would find many British women would be willing to feed another womans milk to thir child. It's not culturally acceptable. Odd given it's acceptable to use another womans eggs or womb!

oh cross posted, glad you're enjoying the debate cocoa, and lucky you already having christmas lunches! i'm feeling quite excited about christmas myself!

What are the "risks" that these poor FF babies face. I am very keen to find out what terrible ailments my dc may suffer.

I think organisations exist to facilitate milk sharing.