Kathleen Bruce forwarded the following:

"...our
>business project is to create Mother's Own Inc., a company dedicated to
>collecting, testing, and distributing human milk to parents who want to
>give their baby nature's perfect human baby food.

>Please answer with only 1 word or a very short phrase: In considering
>human milk for a patient.
>1. my greatest concern for the child would be:
>2. my greatest concern for the mother would be:
>3. my greatest concern for the donor would be:
>4. my initial reaction toward human milk is:
>5. my research into the company or product would begin with:
>

I was so floored when I read this that I had to reread it twice. My real
concern is that this company actually will be able to go ahead with this
and to ultimately appeal to some mothers.  I occasionally talk with some
new mothers who truly want to give their baby breastmilk because they know
it is the best.
And yet some of these mothers really don't want to nurse their baby, but
instead want to pump and give the baby EBM in a bottle.  I think this is a
vulnerable group of mothers, and I hope that they never have the
opportunity to come into contact with this company.

Luckily, I think that marketing breastmilk this way is going to be
extremely difficult. The company is going to have to jump through a lot of
hurdles.  Lots of bright, well-read, new mothers will be pretty squeamish,
no matter what the company professes in terms of safety and testing of the
breastmilk.

In addition, and even more importantly, who is going to provide this
breastmilk?  In all likelihood, it will be poor women, those who alre
already suffering most in our society. The possibility of making money by
selling what is essentially part of their bodies may be a too-powerful
inducement for many to resist. But of course one cannot sell one's milk
without incurring some cost. In this instance cost will be to the health of
both mother and baby; to the baby who may be weaned earlier than otherwise
in order to make a milk supply available for sale; to the mother who will
be depleting her own nutritional reserves. Affluent women will be
consumers, not providers, of milk.

Let's hope that their liability insurance will be so sky high that they
will have to drop this whole meshuggah idea.

Wendy Goldenthal
*************************
Nursing Mother Supplies
Wholesale Nursing Pads to the trade
mailto:[log in to unmask]