Company selling human breast milk for profit - female exploitation?

[Knoxinbox]

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-58343016

1.To me, this seems wrong. Like the article says will women be tempted to donate milk that should be feeding their own babies for money? Even if it doesn’t affect their own babies getting an adequate supply, producing extra milk is not without its health costs to the mother. And I feel that if women are willing to donate milk then isn’t it better it goes to the NICU for premmies rather than for a company to make a profit?

I don’t know this just seems like yet another way to exploit and commercialise women’s bodies to the detriment of their health and possibly to their babies health too.

1. Aside form that, the other issue to me is that breast milk is a live product - full of antibodies from the woman’s immune system. Has there been any long term studies about the affects of consuming breastmilk from multiple sources and therefore multiple women’s white blood cells - could this have to potential to trigger an inflammatory disease in the baby years later?

I myself have an autoimmune arthritis condition as well as PCOS and IBS - and I’m aware that research shows that the longer I breastfeed my babies the more protected they will be from inflammatory diseases in later life. I fed my DD for 3 years and am still feeding 3 year old DS.

But obviously we have a close physical relationship where they have fed directly from my breast and so our immune systems have communicated with each other every day.

Has anyone studied the effects of just ingesting a strangers breastmilk on the recipients immune system long term?

There won’t be a market for it
O almost no point discussing

@Marni83

There won’t be a market for it O almost no point discussing

The article quotes the company: The firm said there was a demand from parents wanting to buy it. Do you think they'd have "invested millions of pounds" without doing some market research?

@Delphinium20

This is awful. I donated my breast milk because I had an over abundance with one of my babies. I did it through a non-profit, volunteer run org. They had requirements on storage and I couldn't be on any medication. I can't imagine getting paid for it. That would have defeated the purpose of my wanting to help out parents. The mom who used mine was going through breast cancer treatment-

Yes, myself and my friends who donated did so because we wanted to and had the capability to do so, to add payment into the mix I think adds pressure and another incentive that some women may feel coerced into doing it.

If there is demand
Then those parents are desperate for it

Either the mother hasn’t been able to breastfeed and desperate for her baby to be breastfed

Or she’s Ill and needs someone to fill in whilst she is recovering and can’t pump

Or baby allergic to formula

Many reasons

But all united in wanting best for their baby and for some reason they are not entitled to donation (usually for those post birth hospital and sick).

I ha e no problem with this whatsoever

Yes there is a need.

Maybe women should be paid for it.

The money should absolutely not go to a middle man. (Reasonabke admin and screening costs aside)

I actually signed up for this when DS was smaller.

I had wanted to donate to the milk bank when I had my first baby but had enquired too late and baby was too old for me to become a donor, so when I had DS I made enquiries with the local milk bank almost straight away. I was told that they were not accepting any new donors. I signed up for Neokare instead and got my donor number etc.

The arrangement is that you pump and freeze the milk and they then collect once you have enough. They said run various tests on the milk to make sure it is suitable / safe. There is payment involved (about 1 per oz if my memory is correct).

At the time it seemed like a great way to make a bit of extra cash to supplement my crap SMP. However ultimately, I didn’t actually get to that stage. Neokare require 5 litres of milk to be pumped and frozen for each collection, and although I’d got into a routine with the pumping, we just didn’t have enough freezer space to store 5l at a time.

Women sell breast milk already. At least this way there is some sort of screening process, appropriate transportation, and you don’t need to deal with buyers directly.

Marnie - wouldn't it be better for effort to be put into expanding the supply into proper not for profit milk banks then? So that in cases where there's a genuine medical advantage to breast milk, there's more to go around, and based on need not ability to pay an eye watering amount. Apart from allergy, most of the instances you give formula would be absolutely fine for the baby.

@ErrolTheDragon

Marnie - wouldn't it be better for effort to be put into expanding the supply into proper not for profit milk banks then? So that in cases where there's a genuine medical advantage to breast milk, there's more to go around, and based on need not ability to pay an eye watering amount. Apart from allergy, most of the instances you give formula would be absolutely fine for the baby.

The two aren’t incompatible You can have paid for an not for profit. Fact is… no one seems to have been inclined to start a non profit?

I must be missing the point because NHS hospitals in the UK run donated breast milk banks for babies who need it. There’s no profit made there.

It will be wealthy parents who are not able or don't want to or can't bf for some reason.

A niche market for a very expensive product.

NHS has milk banks for babies that need it.

They do full screening.

They often ask for volunteers.

It's free to the family that needs it. Premature babies etc.

No need to have multiple orgs.

No it isn’t exploitation

I don’t think the health thing is an issue, you could just boil it and it would be no worse than pasteurised milk from cows?

Not sure on the ethics, it’s an interesting one.

Boil it?

Pasteurisation is not the same as just boiling it. Milk goes gross if you boil it!

And that doesn't kill hiv syphilis etc which is why a load of infections are screened for.

@NiceGerbil

NHS has milk banks for babies that need it.

They do full screening.

They often ask for volunteers.

It's free to the family that needs it. Premature babies etc.

No need to have multiple orgs.

Depends how they define need I guess. Need Vs want- if I don't manage to bf my next child I doubt very much I'd qualify for NHS milk bank as formula is perfectly suitable as a substitute. OR I could put ££££ in the pocket of this company if I've been guilted into thinking breastmilk is the only way (I say that as someone who was fortunate to be able to BF first child to two years old, I'm pro BF but I'm not anti-formula either).

YY that was my point earlier.

They have a premature baby on their site homepage but I think this is a niche product for very wealthy people who don't want to or can't bf.

There is actually good reason to think that breast milk is more suitable for babies than formula. It's not crazy that a parent might prefer the former over the latter.

There's lots to do with that as well that I posted upthread.

Any old BM is missing a load of things that come with BM from the mother.

It's highly unlikely that other BM is as good as the mum's.

Better than formula? At that point it's going to be marginal and formula in the UK is safe and etc. It's not poison.

To push breast milk so much that parents feel they aren't doing the best even from the start if they don't spend £££ is taking the breast is best message and exploiting it for financial gain. And that message makes enough parents feel crap as it is.

I agree. Bf advocates go on about how breast milk adapts to the baby's age and needs. If that's the case one would have to buy milk donated by mothers who gave birth at the same time as the purchaser.

I 'd be very wary of the quality control here given the source is a domestic situation.

@Needapoodle

Perhaps society shouldn't be so focused on "breast is best" so that women will feel obliged to buy milk from other women rather than just giving formula.

Totally agree, the slogan should be "fed is best".

Do you consume animal milks?

Do you think you get it from the same (eg.) cow every time?

At least these women have a choice to do it!

@Mummabug18

Do you consume animal milks?

Do you think you get it from the same (eg.) cow every time?

At least these women have a choice to do it!

What a non and irrelevant point

I'll repeat - Breast feeding advocates consistently talk up how unique breast milk and how it adapts to the baby. See also the points NiceGerbil made. If that is true , that can't be replicated here.

So this is a very expensive, faffing around with unknown quality control.

Breastmilk is unique for each mother's own baby(s) and does adapt and change depending on the age of the baby. That's part of the reason why the mother's own breastmilk is the most appropriate milk for that baby (assuming all other things are equal), and why formula is a safe and nutritionally complete substitute. It's my understanding that NICUs that use donor milk will try as much as possible to match milk to the age of the baby. I also know from my own experience that my unwell baby in SCBU could not tolerate formula at all in the first day or so but could keep down the colostrum and early milk that I was able to express for him.

Having said all that, all those features are going to be totally absent in pasteurised breastmilk from women whose babies are unknown ages, as this company seem to want to supply. Plus the already mentioned additional risk that you're relying on the individual woman to ensure hygiene and storage conditions. It's a huge amount of additional guff, plus a company financially profiting from donations, in order to provide a substance that isn't going to necessarily be worth it.

If women choose not to breastfeed or find that they can't, or there is no mother there to breastfeed, then that's what formula is for. Buy it from the most reputable company you can, as your income allows. Creating an industry around donated human milk, based on parents anxiety/worry/shame/whatever about formula is not something I would ever want to see.

@KimikosNightmare

I agree. Bf advocates go on about how breast milk adapts to the baby's age and needs. If that's the case one would have to buy milk donated by mothers who gave birth at the same time as the purchaser.

I 'd be very wary of the quality control here given the source is a domestic situation.

That's not how it works at all. It's way more involved than that.