Some women end up with a bountiful stash of frozen breast milk — be it from oversupply, a baby in the NICU, or an infant who turns out to be allergic to something in the milk pumped so far. Some of those women are moved to donate the excess milk to a non-profit milk bank. In the past few days, I have heard two women express (no pun intended) frustration at the restrictions posted on women who wish to qualify as breast milk donors. One, whose oversupply and dairy-free diet could certainly have benefited a milk bank, was turned away because she had lived in Great Britain in the ’80s.

Another wrote to tell me her story, and to explain why she supports informal breast milk sharing or donation. Her daughter was born premature at 30 weeks gestation. Fortunately the baby is doing well now and she should be released from the NICU in another two weeks. Here is what the mother had to say about what she hopes to do with her stash of expressed breast milk:

Since our baby has been in the NICU for the last 7 weeks, I have about 2,000 oz of breast milk frozen. We have filled our space allotment in the hospital’s milk bank, filled our freezer at home, and have almost filled my mom’s freezer. There’s no possible way [my daughter] will ever catch up with what I have stored, and anyway, I prefer to breastfeed [when she is ready to transition to the breast]. (We didn’t use bottles much at all with our first.)

I first looked at donating to a milk bank, but can’t because one of the requirements is that you haven’t received a blood transfusion within the past 12 months, so that ruled out that option. (I had practically all of the blood in my body replaced during/after an emergency C-section . . .) Another mother in the NICU was literally pouring her milk down the drain, because she had also filled her space in the hospital’s freezer and her home freezer. I just couldn’t bring myself to do that, because I knew there were people that would really appreciate it. I just didn’t know where to find them.

When I was craving ice cream a few nights ago (which I couldn’t buy because we don’t have room in the freezer for it), I decided I had to take some actions to find a home for it. In my search, I saw that there are quite a few people passionately against milk sharing. Not sure why when obviously there are many healthy people with abundant supplies and many people who can’t afford to purchase milk from a milk bank. Most people do home pasteurization in some form anyway. Obviously people should be aware of the risks of taking a stranger’s milk . . .

Anyway, I think I’ve found someone who wants me to ship all my milk to her, but that milkshare Yahoo group is really active, and I’m pretty sure if this lady I’ve been in communication with changes her mind, that I wouldn’t have any trouble finding a home for it. I do think that milk sharing deserves more attention though, because a lot of women who give birth are also given a blood transfusion, and current milk banking practices eliminate all of those women from donating. (My sister researched the reason for this, and it’s because there was one case of West Nile virus being transmitted through donated milk. If a woman waits through the incubation period to donate her milk, then she can rule out that threat.) And the state of medical insurance what it is, most families can’t afford to buy milk from a bank.

Well, I’ve been long winded here. I just know I’m not the only NICU parent with an excess of milk, so there are others who don’t know what to do with their milk.

I am pleased and grateful that this woman wrote to share her opinion on informal breast milk donation. What’s your opinion? Would you donate your milk informally? Would you take advantage of casual milk sharing if you and your baby had the need? How do you feel about any potential risk of disease transmission or other problems with milk not screened by a milk bank? Are independent testing and pasteurization methods adequate? Leave a comment!

When I got an email informing me that there was a ceremony this evening to name the Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England as the official winner of the Ideablob $10,000 giveaway, I almost didn’t believe it! I ran right over to the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog and sure enough, there was the announcement, explaining that the top vote getter had been disqualified and the milk bank had won! Huge congratulations to Tanya and all those working hard to start up the new milk bank, and a huge “thank you” to all of you who voted in the contest! I am so happy for all those involved and impressed yet again by how breastfeeding supporters across the nation pull together to make a difference!

Jennifer and Tanya report that the Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England received enough votes in the IdeaBlob semi-finals to make it to the final round! The Milk Bank is one of eight finalists competing for the $10,000 prize, so your vote is needed in this final round. Vote now!

All it takes is a few moments of your time to vote for the funding proposal for the Mothers’ Milk Bank of New England on IdeaBlob. If enough people vote (and it only took 600 votes for last month’s winner), the fledgling milk bank receives $10,000 that will be used to buy processing and storage equipment, establish a “Milk Money” fund to help families whose insurance does not cover the processing fees for donor milk, and develop marketing materials for the milk bank. Need more information? Tanya at the Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog is spear-heading the effort, after inspiration from The Lactivist. For information on non-profit donor milk banks in general, visit the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Keep in mind that in addition to or instead of becoming a milk donor, you can volunteer your time as well.

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

Lactation and health professionals might be interested in the second annual conference sponsored by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA). This year the conference takes place at the luxurious Doral Tesoro Hotel and Golf Club in Fort Worth, Texas on November 8 and 9, 2007. Early bird registration ends September 14, 2007 and on-line registration ends October 24, 2007. For further details, visit the HMBANA Conference 2007 page.

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.

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?

When I wrote about On-Line Auctions of Human Breast Milk, my inquiry to eBay resulted in the removal of one listing of breast milk for sale. eBay clarified that the sale of breast milk is not permitted but it never added breast milk to the prohibited “Human Parts and Remains” (which included blood and semen).

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.

Jennifer at The Lactivist must be happier than a pig in mud today after she received an apology from the National Pork Board (remember this controversy?) Her viral marketing campaign spread faster than swine flu. You’ve never seen so many bloggers hamming it up and porking out on pig jokes. Jennifer lists some of the best entries in her update here. I guess this means I can keep wearing my shirt!

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.

In the most controversial poll yet, I asked “Should On-Line Sales of Breast Milk Be Permitted?”

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.

[Note: post edited to censor the picture. I've been asked to take down the picture of the shirt due to a ridiculous claim by the National Pork Board that the humorous lactivist slogan "The Other White Milk" infringes on the Pork Board's trademark "The Other White Meat." Now I can understand if someone where trying to sell, say, goat's milk on television as "The Other White Milk" that that might be a problem. But a lactivist joke t-shirt about breast milk? Lighten up National Pork Board!] My Lactivist t-shirt arrived the other day! Sorry Jennifer, I’m not the greatest model for your fabulously funny shirts, but I thought I’d show off my new shirt as a way to remind people that today is the last day that 100% of profits from t-shirt sales from the Lactivist CafePress store will be donated to the Mothers’ Milk Bank of Ohio. As I discussed yesterday in the article MilkShare Site for Informal Milk Donation, it’s important to support non-profit milk banks. Whether or not you attended the national nurse-ins at Delta airlines counters or will attend the Wal-Mart nurse-outs this coming Saturday, buying a Lactivist t-shirt to benefit the milk bank is one way you can participate in your own bit of lactation activism.

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!