I just don't know how to take this...

On craigslist there was a momma selling her extra breastmilk. Being as I'm not producing, I emailed her. She said her son was a week old and she had a large supply.

I told her to wait it out because her milk supply might just balance itself out as her baby got older.

She emails back saying she's been planning to sell breastmilk since she found out she was pregnant! She's been pumping and taking supplements to increase her milk supply since her son was born.

She's turned herself into...I hate to say this...a freakin cow! Offering extra milk to a struggling momma is one thing. Giving to a milk bank is fine as well. But spending your time pumping to sell milk instead of dealing with your new baby?

It just seems wrong to me.

 

It is a little weird - I have tons of milk too, but I don't have the time or energy to pump. I would if my best friend desperatly needed it, but not for money! My time is worth more than that!!!

 

yeah, i don't think it would be something I would sell... its too personal to sell. I would give it someone I cared about, but would never profit from it. Its kinda prostitution-like, IMO.

I have to agree and think it's a little off for her to be doing so.

 

It's the law of supply and demand. If there is a demand, there will be someone who will supply. Capitalism.

 

a couple of years ago i heard of mama's who would sell their milk @ 100$/ounce to fetishists. that would buy a lot of stay home time with a baby, wouldnt it?

maybe this mama figures that selling her milk will let her buy time at home instead of having to work out of the home.

 

Good point, nimh - It seems like a lot of work though - but I would do ANYTHING to stay at home with my babies - luckily I've never been that desperate!!

 

wow I don't know what to think about that. I sure hope her babe is getting enough milk...

 

When Xander was first born I had to pump and freeze milk because I knew I would be having surgery for the tumor they found while I was pregnant. It was incredibly hard for me to pump even one extra bottle a day since he was nursing so much. Thankfully it turned out to be benign. But I can't imagaine trying to produce enough milk to make a business of it. Still I've dealt with poverty and I know you do what ever you can,especially if it's helping her stay home with her baby. If this society valued human life and children they'd pay us all to stay home. Imagine how much $ they'd save on prisons and stuff if we could all feed and love our kids without stress.

 

isn't it illegal to sell your body fluids? like, I know you can donate it, but I don't think you are allowed to sell it, unless she has some way of pasteurizing it, which defeats half the purpose of feeding baby human milk.

 

Yep. Selling human milk is illegal in the USA. All the auctions on E Bay for human milk are closed down. The main reason is that 1) The milk could be VERY old, and not safe 2) The milk may not have been handled, pumped properly and stored properly and very unsafe 3) It may not even BE human milk. There was a story a few years ago, where a lab bought some Internet "human milk" and it wasn't milk at all. It was a little bit of coffee creamer, with chalk for color and texture and some commercial cheese for smell (yuck) 4) you have no idea if she has Hepatitis, uses drugs of any kind (although most drugs are safe, a few are not, and your baby may be sensitive to them, and you won't even know what it was, or the donor may even be HIV positive or even has TB.

I'd avoid it like the plague, if you are going to buy or obtain milk, make sure you get it from a Human Milk bank, or from someone you trust, and you KNOW it has been pasturized, and that the mama and her baby are healthy.

 

Good point. In order to donate milk to the Human Milk Bank of North America your baby HAS to be exclusively human milk fed. I once got a phone call, from a womyn who wanted to know how she could "make some money" by selling her milk. She said she was going to wean her baby (the child was only a few months old) so she would have "more" to sell.

I informed her that DONORS don't get paid for their milk and that in order to be a donor, she had to continue to breastfeed her baby. (the exception is a mother whose baby has died, or who has given a baby up for adoption) She got angry and insisted I tell her "where that La Leche League sells their mik." I patiently told her LLL does NOT "sell" milk and that there was nothing I could do for her, but I could send her some information on how much HER baby would beneft from continuing to breastfeed. It was a very upsetting conversation.