Chris Mulford gives us food for thought about the monetary value placed on
human milk in various contexts.  Naomi comments on selling milk.
All women who give milk to the banks here, are paid the same rate, and it is
meant to compensate them for the time and trouble it takes to produce it,
collect it, and transport it to the bank.  I don't have a clue what a bank
would charge for the milk; if we are low on CMV-free milk, we have to beg
the banks in Oslo to send us some as that is the only banked milk approved
for VLBW infants.  Remember, we don't pasteurize it, because everyone,
including the neonatologists, want the babies to get as many of the good
things in breastmilk as they can.  For babies under a certain weight and/or
age, the donor must not have had CMV.  If this were a requirement for all
donors, we would have a problem because there are so few women who haven't
had it.

I don't know how the milk banks' billing system works, if they even have
them.  I am not aware that it is possible to purchase banked milk for babies
not in the hospital; normally babies only receive it for the amount of time
it takes for their own mothers to get up to speed with their own milk
production.  The banks are all hospital based, and as such are part of the
public health service and there are no maternity units or neonatal units
outside that service.  Makes for simpler bookkeeping, anyway.

About the non-pasteurization: mothers are tested serologically at regular
intervals for the known bad viral illnesses, the way blood donors are, and
every individual batch of milk is tested for bacteria counts.  (Blood donors
get a towel with an embroidered logo, or a thermos flask, or a little
backpack, every time they give a unit of blood, which they may do up to four
times a year.  They also get some kind of beverage at the time of donation.
Not quite as lucrative!)

In my job I often see mothers with abundant production and after going
through the spiel about how it eventually will end up matching the baby's
needs, etc. I always let them know that if it should continue to be a
problem, they can turn it into a blessing for someone else.  I tell them how
much the banks pay for milk.  I have yet to meet a woman who jumps at the
chance to make easy money - they know all too well what work is involved and
they aren't impressed by the cash amount.  OTOH they all think formula is
*way* overpriced, at about $10 for a package - and I don't know how many
liters one of those packages makes, there are two foil bags of powder in
each one, and each bag makes loads of formula, it seems.

Rachel Myr
in high-cost Norway

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