Rent-a-Mom — Breast Milk Sharing Over the Internet.
Posted On December 15, 2010
I’ve contacted the the FDA-approved milk-banks as well as the largest breast milk sharing sites to be on my radio program to talk about the pros and cons. Would love to get your thoughts now, and this Saturday!!
(please share this with moms, or someone who knows a mom … or has a mom) 
Here’s the deal
Moms who can’t get breast milk on their own are getting it from individuals located over the internet. Government agencies are warning that the moms are taking excessive risks, because who KNOWS what could be in that milk.
It’s unregulated by the regulators who regulate things. And, fair enough: there really ARE random sick people out there and your baby is your baby, after all.
The FDA issued a warning (here is the warning itself) against feeding babies breast milk acquired directly from individuals or through the internet. According to them, “the donor is unlikely to have been adequately screened for infectious disease or contamination risk” and that “it is not likely that the human milk has been collected, processed, tested or stored in a way that reduces possible safety risks to the baby.”
They would rather you use breast milk collected from from sources like the Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBANA … Here’s their website). the HMBABA milk donors have been screened and precautions have been taken to ensure the safety of the milk.
But milk banks can be expensive, running as much as $4.50 for a single ounce of donated milk. That’s $36 dollars for an 8-ounce bottle! No wonder these women are turning to breast milk sharing — which is what women have done since there HAVE been women breast feeding babies.
To answer the concern about the safety of the milk, the recipients of the Social NetMilk have learned how to do a type of flash heat pasteurization process that has been shown to inactivate HIV in the breast milk of HIV-positive women.
The unregulated nature of it all makes it kinda weird, but we’ll find out where the limits of this process are as soon as there is an accident caused by the Random Sicko. Then, changes will be made to the process, but you certainly can’t completely shut down the sharing of breast milk between mothers.
For more information: Click here to visit Will Clower’s website.
(Visited 3 times, 1 visits today)
About The Author
