the breast milk trade

[Bindelj]

Dear all, I am investigating the commercial breast milk trade in the UK. I wrote this about the situation in Cambodia 4 years ago (www.truthdig.com/articles/an-example-of-capitalism-literally-milking-the-poor). Horrific. The way things are going we will be seeing desperately poor women in the UK being coerced into selling milk. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of this issue? If so, I am on [email protected] or please respond here. Many thanks.

It's a false analogy to compare sperm donation/sale and breastmilk donation/sale- there is a satisfactory and easily available substitute for breastmilk. No one, with the exception of premature infants needs breastmilk alone. As a pp has pointed out the unique benefits of breastfeeding would be partially lost in the case of selling BM, and the hazards of formula feeding would partially apply.
The needs of the premature babies could be met (maybe with some improvements to the organisation of collecting and storing) by donation, and this is best compared to the donation of blood.

Just because a few women might be able to 'make a few extra quid while on maternity leave' by the regulated sale of their milk doesn't mean that we as a society should condone this commodification of our bodies and what they can do. I dare say there are a few women able to 'work' as prostitutes safely....but overwhelmingly it's harmful to women and so we don't condone it. Or, to take another example, there may be people able to use heroin safely and without becoming addicted but we ban this for the sake of the people whose lives will be ruined by heroin.
I really don't see what is so hard to understand here.

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria
I sold excess when mine were tiny, in the USA though. Had regular buyers (3 of them bought multiple times), all gay couples with adopted babies. Pretty lucrative per bag for me as a sahm but I only had a few a week

blood letting! Have you ever given blood? I have actually tried to give blood several times and been declined for the sake of my own health

"No one, with the exception of premature infants needs breastmilk alone."

Able bodied people don't need cleaners either but that doesn't stop many mumsnetters from employing working class women to clean their homes, and it doesn't stop women from offering their labour in exchange for money.

And it's up to the individual to decide what they value and what they don't. It's not for you to make that judgement.

so as long as you have the money and someone is prepared to sell to you, anything goes?
wow

"I dare say there are a few women able to 'work' as prostitutes safely....but overwhelmingly it's harmful to women and so we don't condone it."

Because sex work puts women at risk of emotional and physical harm.

There is no evidence that lactating and selling breastmilk is either physically or emotionally harmful when it's the choice of the woman to do it.

In fact all current evidence points to Lactation as reducing a woman's risk of some very common and devastating illnesses.

and it doesn't stop women from offering their labour in exchange for money

We're talking about the products of a woman's body.

I don't want to live in a society where poor women are encouraged to treat themselves like cattle, and the normalisation of it would have an impact on all women.

"so as long as you have the money and someone is prepared to sell to you, anything goes?
wow"

Yes.

If a woman wishes to express her breastmilk and someone wishes to purchase it - no harm is being done.

"I don't want to live in a society where poor women are encouraged to treat themselves like cattle, and the normalisation of it would have an impact on all women."

Bet you don't mind living in a culture where women pay other women £12 an hour to scrub the shit out of their toilets for them.

I appreciate you probably think breastmilk is disgusting and worthless, but not everyone shares your view.

By the way - we are mammals, and so are our young.

Lactation is what mammals do.

It's only disgusting when it involves coercion and cruelty - as the commercial bovine milk trade does.

@Sabire9

"so as long as you have the money and someone is prepared to sell to you, anything goes? wow"

Yes.

If a woman wishes to express her breastmilk and someone wishes to purchase it - no harm is being done.

If a woman is doing it for money, I doubt she's using a hospital grade electric pump as they are expensive.

Handpumps involve repetitive motion and can lead to repetitive strain injury.

Expressing via pumps is more likely to cause blocked ducts than breastfeeding, and thus increases the risk of mastitis.

As I said before, just because it's possible for one to conceive of a commercial transaction being harmless in one instance, doesn't mean that it should be condoned, because of the forseeable chance of it causing harm in other instances.

@Sabire9

"I don't want to live in a society where poor women are encouraged to treat themselves like cattle, and the normalisation of it would have an impact on all women."

Bet you don't mind living in a culture where women pay other women £12 an hour to scrub the shit out of their toilets for them.

I appreciate you probably think breastmilk is disgusting and worthless, but not everyone shares your view.

A genuine thank you for that. I really needed the laugh and I appreciate it greatly.

I will let you work out for yourself why I might be showing your post to my family right now.

Nobody here is disgusted by lactation, far from it, I reckon I totalled 8 infant years of lactation.
I don't think there is anything disgusting or undignified about cleaning toilets either.

I would happily sell my milk, I don't really understand why it's so taboo. Generally the conversations are about the morals of the mother who would sell rather than donate. If some weirdo wants to buy breastmilk, why not let them?

I appreciate you probably think breastmilk is disgusting and worthless, but not everyone shares your view

Oh good lord

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jan/28/she-cant-say-no-the-men-who-take-breast-milk-from-babies
it is a serious problem with major risks for babies. Please can people stop making excuses for the sale of women's body fluids.

i don't think there is anything disgusting or undignified about cleaning toilets either

No, and its people paying people to clean toilets, i quite understand that in domestic cleaning its more likely to be a female but not in commercial places but I doubt that the majority of ‘customers’ are female

Such a disturbing article. Thank you for writing it.

I used to donate my breastmilk. What the UK desperately needs is a centralised milk donation system like the one for blood. Currently each hospital has to set up its own system, meaning that most don't bother. It would actually end up saving the NHS money in the medium and long term.

"it is a serious problem with major risks for babies. Please can people stop making excuses for the sale of women's body fluids"

Ffs - who is sanctioning women being coerced into doing ANYTHING?

Who?

Are you really making the case that a situation where a woman in the U.K. who chooses to express and sell her milk is on par with a situation involving an impoverished woman in Uganda being forced into breastfeeding adult men?

"If a woman is doing it for money, I doubt she's using a hospital grade electric pump as they are expensive.

Handpumps involve repetitive motion and can lead to repetitive strain injury.

Expressing via pumps is more likely to cause blocked ducts than breastfeeding, and thus increases the risk of mastitis."

There are all sorts of things we do in the course of making money that are potentially harmful. I hurt my back sometimes lugging my work equipment up stairs. If I decide it's bothering me enough to make me not want to do the work - well that's my choice isn't it?

Women may already have a double pump. They can pick them up for very little on eBay.

Or they may just sell a few ounces here and there that they've collected. Lots of women build up a massive stash of spare breastmilk and freeze it. There's a market for frozen and for fresh breastmilk. If they want to sell it - why shouldn't they? It's their's to sell. What do you think they should do with it if their baby doesn't want it or they've switched to giving formula? Pour it down the sink out of principle?

Great to find out that British women can't be impoverished or in coercive relationships.

You've convinced me. Let's send recruitment agents for breastmilk brokers around postnatal wards, touting for suppliers!

I think if I had unwanted bm in the freezer I'd probably cook with it or maybe make it into cocoa rather than waste it, then I could give it to my weaned children. Or eat/drink it myself.

@Sabire9

"If a woman is doing it for money, I doubt she's using a hospital grade electric pump as they are expensive.

Handpumps involve repetitive motion and can lead to repetitive strain injury.

Expressing via pumps is more likely to cause blocked ducts than breastfeeding, and thus increases the risk of mastitis."

There are all sorts of things we do in the course of making money that are potentially harmful. I hurt my back sometimes lugging my work equipment up stairs. If I decide it's bothering me enough to make me not want to do the work - well that's my choice isn't it?

Women may already have a double pump. They can pick them up for very little on eBay.

Or they may just sell a few ounces here and there that they've collected. Lots of women build up a massive stash of spare breastmilk and freeze it. There's a market for frozen and for fresh breastmilk. If they want to sell it - why shouldn't they? It's their's to sell. What do you think they should do with it if their baby doesn't want it or they've switched to giving formula? Pour it down the sink out of principle?

Are you sure you've ever breastfed?

Why would a woman who'd switched to formula throw away the milk she'd pumped and frozen? She won't. If she's decided to full time bottlefeed with formula, and not to express any more because it's too hard (expressing is literally the worst of both worlds!) she will use the milk she expressed to bottlefeed as she switches to formula.

And "if their baby doesn't want it". Do you think breastmilk is disgusting or something?

And what does a mother deciding what to do with frozen breastmilk have to do with a regulated market? In a "regulated market", I doubt ice cube trays of breastmilk that had been stored in a domestic freezer could be just sold on when surplus to requirements!

@StillWeRise

I think if I had unwanted bm in the freezer I'd probably cook with it or maybe make it into cocoa rather than waste it, then I could give it to my weaned children. Or eat/drink it myself.

I'd be using it for introducing solids. The familiar taste of mummy's milk is great when introducing new textures and other new tastes.

I have fond memories of the abrupt political U-turn my baby made on the matter after I added breastmilk into a rejected bowlful of purée.