Should You Support the International Breast Milk Project?

The International Breast Milk Project (IBMP) sounded so noble and noteworthy. Mother Jill Youse had extra breast milk stashed in the freezer and decided to pair with Prolacta Bioscience to ship donated breast milk to an orphanage in South Africa where the milk would be given to babies orphaned by AIDS.

Since the initial splash of positive publicity, however, the project has come under fire for questionable practices. Sure it’s nice that Prolacta processes and ships some breast milk donations for free, but it doesn’t ship all the donations or even a majority of the donations. It sells the remaining donations for profit. In fact Prolacta has been criticized for operating as a for-profit milk bank, soliciting donations of breast milk and then selling the pasteurized milk for several times more per ounce than the non-profit milk banks of the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA).

Jennifer at The Lactivist raised some legitimate and troubling concerns about the IBMP. Specifically, she had unanswered questions about how much of the milk donated to the project actually ended up in South Africa, and how much of any money earned from sales of the rest of the milk actually got donated back to the IBMP.

Those concerns prompted IBMP Founder Jill Youse to offer this response on MotheringDotCommune. She reports that last fall Prolacta Bioscience committed to ship 10,000 ounces of breast milk to South Africa. Due to widespread publicity surrounding the project, over 55,000 ounces have been donated to the project thus far (meaning a large percentage of the milk donated has not been shipped to Africa) [Edited to add: The Lactivist has since confirmed that Prolacta has shipped 15,000 ounces to Africa so far. Prolacta has promised that all 55,000 ounces collected before June 1, 2007, will eventually be shipped to Africa. Starting June 1, the new arrangement outlined below will kick in]. Youse goes on to state:

Last week, Prolacta Bioscience agreed to process and test even more donated breast milk for free. 25% of all donated breast milk—an estimated 25,000 ounces each year—will be screened, tested, and shipped by Prolacta each year for free. When you donate milk, Prolacta will segregate 25% of your milk to go to Africa, so every mom knows that some of her milk is going to help babies orphaned by poverty and disease in Africa. The rest of milk will stay in the US for babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Prolacta has also agreed to donate $1 to International Breast Milk Project for every ounce of donated milk that stays in the U.S. Based on current donations, IMBP will receive $50,000 – $75,000 each year, ensuring a sustainable, steady source of funds to build critically needed healthcare clinics for babies orphaned by poverty and disease in Africa, and will provide a vehicle to help local moms donate milk. 100% of every dollar that each ounce of milk provides will go directly to supporting babies orphaned by HIV in Africa.

Ultimately, the vision of IMBP is to make donor breast milk a global norm. Our increased funding will enable us to achieve our goal which is to build critically needed healthcare clinics for babies orphaned by HIV in Africa. These clinics will also serve as a vehicle to help local moms donate milk. Breast milk donated within Africa provides an even more efficient and sustainable source of breast milk for infants there.

While I am glad to see some more accountability on the part of Prolacta, I cannot imagine that current and potential breast milk donors are going to be impressed with only 25% of their milk going to Africa, and only an additional $1 per ounce going to fund the project. Prolacta sells the processed milk for a reported $35 per ounce, compared to the $3-4 per ounce charged by non-profit milk banks. I don’t know how much it costs Prolacta to collect, process and distribute breast milk, but let’s assume its costs are comparable to HMBANA’s and compare the price Prolacta sells milk to the price HMBANA sells milk. Doing the math (Prolacta’s $35 sale price minus HMBANA’s $4 sale price), that translates to a potential profit for Prolacta of $31 per ounce. So, with $1 of every $31 going to benefit the IBMP, that’s a little over 3% of the potential profits. Even if we’re generous and assume 5% or even 10% of profits are invested back in the IBMP on top of the 25% share of the milk itself, don’t you think donors would rather 100% of their donations be given to support the efforts of an HMBANA non-profit milk bank?

What do you think? Should breast milk donors support the International Breast Milk Project?