Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

(How much do you all love the logo for the Mother’s Milk Bank of New England?? Very cool. Don’t forget to vote!)

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

If you won’t be attending the conference but are interested in finding out more about human milk banking, visit HMBANA’s Frequently Asked Questions page.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

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?

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

The other day the seller whose listing was removed left a comment on one of my posts. She offered some insight into eBay policies and practices:

They kicked it off e-bay as it violating the Food Policy as breast milk is an unpasteurized dairy product which is not allowed, but I can repost it over and over again and they don’t notice.

Indeed, the Food Policy says:

Prohibited Food Items: For the safety of eBay’s members, sellers may not list the following food and food-related items on eBay:

. . . Non-pasteurized dairy products . . .

I don’t know about you but I don’t consider breast milk a “dairy product.” Yes, it can be pasteurized, but it’s not “dairy.” “Dairy” is an animal product. The distinction is not something to get up in arms about, but I think it’s pretty funny and it’s indicative of yet another way in which people mistakenly view breast milk as interchangeable with cow’s milk (and artificial baby milk derived from cow’s milk). Wrong wrong, so very wrong.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

The best news of all is that the t-shirt sales from Jennifer’s fundraiser for the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Ohio raised over $700! Combine that with 10% of the profits from prior months and add in a few extra dollars and Jennifer’s making it an even $1,000! Thank you to all who supported the cause.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

The results turned out to be quite divided when I aggregated all of the “yes” and “no” votes:

The complete results are as follows:

Sure, I’d buy the milk if I needed it: 2% of votes
Yes, it’s a matter of buyer-beware: 15%
Yes, if the milk has been tested and pasteurized: 8%
Yes, if the buyer plans to test and pasteurize the milk: 2%
Yes, if there is a site set up to regulate it: 13%
No, never, it’s too dangerous: 13%
No, never, it’s unethical/morally wrong: 0%
No, mothers should donate to nonprofit milk banks: 19%
No, for each of those three reasons: 21%
I’m not sure: 6%

The prevailing sentiment was that mothers should donate to nonprofit milk banks. The combined vote for the answers “No, mothers should donate to nonprofit milk banks” and “No, for each of those three reasons” was 40% of the total votes. To read more about donation of breast milk, click here. To read all prior poll results, click here.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

CafePress is offering free shipping on orders of $50 or more with the promo code VDSHIP at checkout. So if you were thinking of buying a shirt, now’s the time! To read more about Jennifer’s fundraising efforts, read Milking You to Benefit Donor Milk Bank. As promised, I’ll report back the amount of funds raised over the last two months!

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

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.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

First, my email:

I have a question about prohibited items. Can human breast milk be offered for sale? I saw under “Human Parts and Remains” that the sale of blood and sperm are prohibited but I did not see breast milk listed.

Please note that I plan to share your response with the readers of my breastfeeding support blog. Thanks!

Now eBay’s response:

Dear eBay member,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to interest in eBay’s policy on selling breast milk on the site.

We do not actually allow the sale of breast milk on the site much like the items that you listed in your email. We feel that there are proper avenues for people that are really in need of breast milk for their babies and that eBay is not a proper venue. We cannot ensure the safety of such items being sold on the site and must request that members do not attempt to sell breast milk.

It is my pleasure to assist you. Thank you for choosing eBay.

Sincerely,
Dag

eBay Customer Support

I’m very pleased with the prompt response and the polite way in which my question was handled. However, I note that breast milk still has not been added specifically to the group of prohibited items, and, get this–there are two new listings for human breast milk today.

The first listing offers “Healthy Human Breast Milk” at a starting bid of U.S. $99 for 150 ounces of milk (approximately $0.67 per ounce). The other offers “Human Breast Milk” at a starting bid of $80 for 40 ounces ($2 per ounce).

I like eBay in general. I understand that it must process a staggering amount of listings each day and some are bound to fall through the cracks. I’m not in the business of policing eBay listings, but clearly eBay needs a better way to police itself.

What do you think? So far the poll is running 2-to-1 against allowing on-line sales of breast milk.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3