Following these back-and-forths discussions about the cost of donor
human milk with great interest!
At the risk of being a bit seditious I'll let you know that my friend
George Kent (author of Regulating Infant Formula) and I have many
times only half-day-dreamed about the mothers of Africa being paid to
perhaps sell 30ml - 60ml of their expressed breastmilk every day for
US$1.00 per ounce, or so, when the the going rate is more than twice
that, so that it could be exported to where it's clearly so sorely
needed because Western mothers seem to have so much difficulty in
producing enough of it. Think about it.... Breastmilk is so
valuable, yet so scarce that we're actually having these discussions,
but it's so available and easily produced in Africa . Expressing an
ounce or two every day would not deprive African babies because their
mothers would simply make more on demand.
It pleases me to think that these women, who are often so over-worked
and never paid while caring for whole families in appalling
conditions, carrying water, digging fields, could earn this little
sum, which would make them self-sufficient financially to provide for
their families, reducing their dependance in the very patriarchal
societies in which they live, with all the vulnerability that that
entails..... Furthermore, in many developing countries the per capita
annual income is often less than $1 per day, so the export and
earnings of such a valuable commodity could go a long way towards
reversing the poverty of a whole continent. People often shrink in
horror at the thought of milk donors not being screened, particularly
when the risk of transmittable diseases like HIV is factored in, but
I've never understood why, unless it's actually anticipated that milk
banks will make mistakes to inadvertently allow some raw milk into
the supply chain. These women live on natural foods because they
cannot afford the expensive junk foods we eat in the West. Nor can
they afford to drink, smoke, or take drugs and the very point of
pasteurization is to inactivate all pathogens anyway. There is
often also shock at the thought of milk donors being paid - but
mother's milk is a _valuable_ resource - isn't it madness really to
trivialize its worth by insisting that it can only be donated?
Ah well ..... but it _is_ an intriguing thought.
Pamela Morrison IBCLC
Rustington, England
-------------------------------
> I believe that if we want to have it accessible to the populations
that need it then we have to do a better job of increasing the
awareness and value of breastfeeding and human milk.
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