Eats on Feets -Breast Milk-Sharing group

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

FROM TIME:

Move Over, Milk Banks: Facebook and Milk Sharing

JENNIFER BLOCK

NOV 22, 2010

...Women have been sharing breast milk for eons (remember wet nurses?), but the practice has been stigmatized in modern society, especially in the age of HIV. Milk banks screen and pasteurize donated milk and give priority to premature and very ill babies, essentially preventing most families from accessing the milk. And for those who can get banked milk, it is often prohibitively expensive: $3 to $5 per oz., upwards of $100 for a day's supply.

Eats On Feets GLOBAL is a milk sharing network.

It is a place where women who want breastmilk for their babies can find women who have breastmilk to share.

The details of milk sharing arrangements and relationships are to be negotiated between the donors and recipients.

Participants are making an informed choice to share human breastmilk and understand both the risks and the benefits.

Human milk is the biological norm for human babies.

Some pathogens MAY be passed through human milk.

Flash heating may kill pathogens.

Blood screening is available through your local health resources.

Please follow safe handling and preparation guidelines.

We are NOT providing medical advice.

Participants should contact their health care provider(s) to discuss risk.

For more information please visit:

Eats On Feets - human milk for human babies

Thoughts?

1st thought is wow, legal nightmare coming up...

2nd thought was wow again-what a freakin legal nightmare!! I can only imagine if someone wanted to be evil, much less if a woman did not do testing, etc and passed something on accidentally...Then I thought about all the power gaps and checkstops that would need to be put into place top ensure nothing horrible happened, which would shoot the cost of something like this WAY up....Those are my 1st thoughts on this....

Women have been sharing breast milk for eons (remember wet nurses?), but the practice has been stigmatized in modern society, especially in the age of HIV. Milk banks screen and pasteurize donated milk and give priority to premature and very ill babies, essentially preventing most families from accessing the milk. And for those who can get banked milk, it is often prohibitively expensive: $3 to $5 per oz., upwards of $100 for a day's supply.

Eats On Feets GLOBAL is a milk sharing network.

It is a place where women who want breastmilk for their babies can find women who have breastmilk to share.

The details of milk sharing arrangements and relationships are to be negotiated between the donors and recipients.

Participants are making an informed choice to share human breastmilk and understand both the risks and the benefits.

Human milk is the biological norm for human babies.

Some pathogens MAY be passed through human milk.

Flash heating may kill pathogens.

Blood screening is available through your local health resources.

Please follow safe handling and preparation guidelines.

We are NOT providing medical advice.

Participants should contact their health care provider(s) to discuss risk.

For more information please visit:

Eats On Feets - human milk for human babies

Thoughts?

Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

I nursed both of my children and shared milk with two friends while I was nursing my son. I wholeheartedly support any effort for human babies to receive human milk rather than the by products of the dairy industry.

Specializes in Primary Care Nursing.

I'm sorry, but I find this gross. I'm all for babies receiving human milk but the very idea of my baby receiving some other woman's possibly contaminated milk and god knows what else she's got swimming in there, really sickens me.

Breastfeeding is such a private and personal shared bonding experience between mother and babe, it must totally ruin it to imagine some stranger's milk providing life to your baby.

Breast is best but I'd pick formula over this unorthodox practice any day.

Flame away, natural parenting extremists, flame away!

Specializes in NICU.

With all of the checks and requirements that women are required to go through in order to donate milk to a milk bank, and all of the pasteurization that it goes through, I'm all for it. Isn't it a little weird that culturally we don't think twice about milk from an unknown cow, but get grossed out at the thought of actual human milk?

There is a definate downfall in the prohibitive cost, but as stated above by the OP, I'm sure that all of the testing and preperation involved, combined with the relative scarcity of supply, drive up the cost greatly.

I think its wonderful that people are willing to share their breast milk with babies who may otherwise not be able to receive it. This reminds me of the outrage some people had when actress, Salma Hayek breastfed a baby on a humanitarian trip to Africa. I didn't get the outrage then, and I am kind of disappointed that people are so closed minded to the idea of sharing HUMAN milk. Like someone said, we don't think twice about using cow milk or even lab created synthetic milk, for Pete's sake! :) Besides, its not really "unorthodox" people have been doing it forever! Wet nurses or whatever else you want to call them have been used since the beginning of time.

I guess I don't really see breast feeding as only a personal mommy/baby experience. I see it as the best way for a baby to get nutrients and develop immunities...but that's just my $0.02...

Revealing that we'd require a stranger to undergo stringent disease testing, but not feel the need do the same for ourselves before breastfeeding our infants. Most donors have already had routine prenatal testing done for diseases like HIV and Hep C. Should we hold strangers to a higher standard than we would ourselves? Is using formula to supplement safer than using donor milk? After all, it can be contaminated with bacteria, which can cause a deadly form of meningitis in preemies and other illnesses, or even contain ground up bug parts . The CDC has this to say on milk-sharing, "For women who do not have HIV or other serious infectious diseases, there is little risk to the child who receives her breast milk." The World Health Organization supports milk-sharing stating that "breast milk from a healthy wet-nurse or a human-milk bank" is a preferred alternative when the mother cannot breastfed her own infant. The WHO also states that, "Infants who are not

breastfed, for whatever reason, should receive special attention from

the health and social welfare system since they constitute a risk

group." Read more about the risks of not receiving breast milk HERE.

See FAQ at Eats On Feets - human milk for human babies for additional information.

Specializes in pediatric critical care.

I'll admit, when I first learned of this through one of our NICU nurses, I thought it was gross. But, how is it any different than donating blood? The screening required makes it safe, and there are some women who cannot produce adequate breastmilk for their preemies, I was one of them. I think this is a fabulous idea to boost the health of our most fragile ones!

:yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah::yeah:

Specializes in chemical dependency detox/psych.

I find this fascinating. I would have shared my milk with another woman's child that I felt a bond with, like one of my nieces or nephews, or a close friend's child. I swear, I had more milk than I knew what to do with, and could have easily nursed twins or triplets. I successfully nursed my daughter until age 2 1/2, as it just naturally wound down at that point and weaning was a no-stress deal. I think if all parties are willing and waivers of liability are signed, go for it.

Specializes in PP, Pediatrics, Home Health.

I am all for this.Its a great idea, especially for those that want to breast feed but can't.I don't think its gross at all.Its breast milk.To a baby it all tastes the same.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

When my third baby was born, he spent a week in the NICU. I've never been able to respond well to a pump, and I was not able to fully bring my milk supply in. We tried exclusively breastfeeding for 6 weeks and he still had not regained birthweight, so I came to the realization that he needed more than what I could provide.

I found out about another similar group called Milkshare where private women who have extra milk will ship it to other women in need. Most of the recipients were satisfied with prenatal labs showing the donor to be healthy and free of HIV and HBV.

I received donor milk from 4 different donors, one local, one about 2 hours away that we drove to pick up, and two donors from across the country who shipped their frozen milk to us. In all, I think my son (who is now 2 1/2 and ridiculously healthy and a bit chubby) received about 2000 oz. of donor breastmilk, and thanks to these generous women, he only received formula supplementation for about 4 days total in his life.

As you can imagine, I am 100% in favor of private milk donation, as long as all parties involved are aware of the risks, and perform due diligence.

Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
I'll admit, when I first learned of this through one of our NICU nurses, I thought it was gross. But, how is it any different than donating blood? The screening required makes it safe, and there are some women who cannot produce adequate breastmilk for their preemies, I was one of them. I think this is a fabulous idea to boost the health of our most fragile ones!

To be clear, the service mentioned in the OP, as well as the one that I mentioned, is NOT a milk bank. Meaning, it's not a place were milk is tested, pasteurized and then doled out to babies in need. It's a place where women who need milk for their babies can get in touch with women who have extra. The amount of testing and assurances that the milk is safe is something that's strictly up to the recipient, and arranged between donor and recipient.

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