MilkShare Site for Informal Breast Milk Donation
January 30, 2007 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under activism, breast milk, donation of breast milk, health of the baby
I wrote a three part series on breast milk sales on eBay over the last few days (On-Line Auctions of Human Breast Milk; Update; eBay Responds).
In the poll many people voiced the opinion that nonprofit milk banks are the only proper and safe way to facilitate exchanges of expressed breast milk. However, the fact remains that many women are not quite so altruistic and are seeking to sell their milk on-line.
In the course of investigating on-line sources of breast milk sales, I came across at least three blog posts that unwittingly became forums for breast milk buyers and sellers. One continues to rack up comments offering and requesting breast milk (be warned, do not click on the next link unless you’ve braced yourself for internet trolls and men with breastfeeding and breast milk fetishes). At last count this post had racked up 698 comments since April 13, 2005 with new comments being added every day.
From the buyer’s perspective, there are mothers for whom the cost of breast milk from a donor milk bank is simply too high. While some insurance companies will cover the $3 per ounce cost in certain cases, many families are left facing a charge of $100 per day for donor milk. With breast milk selling for $1-$2 per ounce on the internet, it’s no wonder women are tempted to go that route.
Others turn to ways to raise money to cover the cost of donor milk (isn’t “the cost of donor milk” an oxymoron?) Take the story of breast cancer survivor Jennifer Connel who set up the site Feed My Baby after she underwent a double mastectomy that left her unable to breastfeed. In “Moms pay big for other mothers’ milk
but doctors warn non-nursing women of health risk to babies” in the San Francisco Chronicle, Jeanine DeFao writes of Jennifer Connel:
She initially was soliciting monetary donations to pay for banked milk and was surprised when women offered their milk, even more so when her doctor recommended she take it and helped her set up a screening process modeled on the methods used by milk banks. Connel even bought a pasteurizer….
Connel, who also gave her second son donated milk, estimates 50 women throughout the country have shipped her donated milk on dry ice.
“If you’re dedicated and interested in doing this safely, it can be done,” she said. “If you’re going to do it stupidly, don’t do it. Feed your child formula.”
That philosophy led Kelley Faulkner to set up MilkShare, a site for information on private milk donation. Ms. Faulkner tells the story of a congenital breast abnormality that left her unable to produce enough milk for her first son. In 2004 she established MilkShare not as a milk bank but as a site for information and as a facilitator for a Yahoo email group for potential donors and donees to share and find milk. The group currently has 394 members.
The site offers the following disclaimer:
Also, please note: MilkShare does NOT support the selling of breastmilk, as we only promote safe breastmilk donation. We emphasize that mothers who are capable of making their own milk, should learn to effectively do so before utilizing donor milk, as donors work very hard to provide milk and we believe that their milk should be used only for mothers with a true medical need or absence of lactation (as with adoption, surrogacy, or surgery).
The site does offer quite a bit of information on donor screening and recommends that donor milk be tested for the same things tested by nonprofit milk banks: HIV 1 & 2, Hepatitis B & C, Syphilis, and HTLV 1 & 2 (herpes viruses). It also recommends pasteurizing the milk with a home pasteurizer.
In a Wall Street Journal article “Mothers Who Share Breast Milk: Internet Fuels Movement Aimed at Supplying Moms Unable to Nurse on Their Own” by Sara Schaefer Muñoz, a nurse recommends that mothers ask donors for a chest x-ray in addition to blood test results in order “to rule out tuberculosis, because carriers of the disease could contaminate their donated milk while handling it.”
Is MilkShare a good idea? To me it smacks a bit of the debate about safe sex education. As the argument goes, if people are going to engage in the activity, shouldn’t we teach them how to do it safely? Is there a fully safe way?
Ideally I’d like to see more mothers donating milk to nonprofit milk banks, more insurance carriers covering the expense, and more private monetary donations to milk banks in order to bring down the cost of donor milk.
My family is a very careful and thankful recipient of donor milk that I found through MilkShare. MS was a godsend for us.
I am a breast cancer survivor and was unable to lactate, my son was born with a congenital defect in his GI tract that left him unable to digest formula. Our insurance denied our request for milk bank milk – enter MilkShare. I gathered thorough medical records from each of our 7 donor mamas at our family’s expense and provided each with pumps, bags, and with some a freezer to store milk for us. We traveled up to 6 hours each way sometimes to pick up milk in giant coolers with dry ice – shipping costs about $1/oz, which would have ran us in excess of $200 a week, plus the cost of supplies and packaging. It was cheaper for us to just drive once a month to pick up, plus it afforded us the opportunity to get to know our milk mamas better.
We never bought milk outright, but we did take care of our donor mamas’ expenses and I always brought them a small gift of thanks. The liability of selling your milk is huge, so I never wanted money to change hands but we always tried to be very generous in return for the amazing gift of health they gave our son.
Our little boy is healthy and thriving now at nearly a year old, and he can now digest formula and cow’s milk. We will forever be thankful to the amazing mamas of MilkShare who gave us such a precious and intimate gift.
Thanks for sharing your story Felicia. I’m glad to hear your son thrived on the breast milk!
I am involved in the setting up and supply of equipment for Milk Banks in USA and South America, I am so very pleased to note from my searches and investigation that the population of mothers in the USA are so much more informed than in the UK. Milk Banks and Donor Milk Banks have a central, fundamental place in the healthcare of our Children. There is no milk like mums milk !! The evidence is there !