Would you re-mortgage your house/take out a massive loan to breastfeed you baby?

[Buddleja]

As per a discussion I had today (I'll leave you guessing about what!)

er.. what?

is it something to with not being able to afford maternity leave?

Presume it's to do with when you return to work.

OK I need to be more exact - to give your baby breastmilk rather than actually breast feed

Trying to work out why so much money would need to be saved to breastfeed. breast surgery to enable breastfeeding? Totally lost here.

is it to buy breastmilk online or something? or privately somehow?

hire a wet nurse

oh I hate these half-assed mystery threads

spit it out or sod off

Not quite sure TBH. More than likely if it was viable.

well no, obviously. is this to do with the cost of formula in the 3rd world?

No JackiePaper not the cost of formula

We were talking about the fact it costs the NHS around £150 a litre of breast milk and then someone told us that she heard of a gay couple (in USA) re-mortgaging to buy breast milk for a baby they had adopted

Might have been cheaper to hire a wet nurse!

Happy now Greensleeves I spat it out (though at that price I really shouldn't )

Is this a riddle?

You need to give more details if you want proper replies!

ah i see, yes i remember being shocked at how much donated breastmilk 'costs'. Even though it is donated for free, the costs of pasteurising it, storing it, employing staff to do all of that etc adds up to a lot. It does save premature babies lives tho, so totally woth the expense to the NHS IMHO

I thought the milk in the bottles from the maternity wards was formual? Is it breastmilk. Or am I going off track?

I think you're going off track there queeny, i'm sure they save the breast milk up like gold dust for the sick babies.

the standard babies on the ward are getting formula I'm sure.

Donated breastmilk is given to extremely sick babies in neonatal intensive care. It is not given to babies on the postnatal ward.

Breastmilk is easier on the gut of a very weak baby than formula. It is certainly worth the cost if means a baby lives or avoids terrible brain damage.

However I doult I would remortgage my house to give donated breastmilk to a healthy full term baby. That money could be better spent on other things for the child. Breastmilk does make a difference to health, but there are other factors that make for a healthy and happy individual.

It is possible to work and breastfeed, my daughter feeds four times a night and doesn't take milk at nursery. Other women mix feed or express milk.

Goodness! Can milk be re started, i may start a cottage industry ;-)

There is an Australian economist called Julie Smith who has done some interesting work on the economics of breastmilk/breastfeeding - she talks about the market value of breastmilk.

WoW! I'm going to look her up.

£150 a litre - wow, wish I'd carried on pumping.

Hmmm, apparently domperidone gets it going again, any other ideas?

yes the different SCUBU units sell it to each other and in this country 4 years ago when I donated I think it was about £80 per litre

Thanks ItNeverRainsBut

I found this article from Julie Smith off to read it Click here for article