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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