I Make Milk. What's Your Superpower?
I love that slogan.
Since folding laundry is such a boring activity, I decided to spice it up today by watching a little tawdry daytime television. I was just getting ready to head over to the Dr. Phil zone, when I saw the Tyra Banks Show's promo...How to get stuff for free and unusual ways to make money. Hmmm...intriguing. And better than 'dishonest spouses' or 'mouthy teens' or whatever the Dr. Phil fare of the day was going to be.
It was about half-way through, and all of a sudden, I couldn't stop watching: A woman who had an abundance of breast milk was selling her milk!! Tyra polled the audience as to who would be willing to do such a thing and no one, I mean no one raised their hand! Unbelievable!! What a bunch of holier-than-thou women in that audience! While everyone in the audience seemed to sit in silent judgment of this woman, I found myself saying, "Why not?"
I certainly have no disrespect for those women who formula feed their babies. It is a very personal choice and every woman is different. My thought process when I had Archie, then subsequently Lawrence was that I would give it a shot. If I hated it, I could always switch to bottle feeding. But I couldn't do the reverse. As it turns out, I love being able to comfort my baby in a way that no other person can. I think it's great that I don't have to go sterilize bottles in the middle of the night--The food is always the perfect amount at the perfect temperature with no effort on my part. I just put him in the bed with me and go back to sleep. I don't have to have a bunch of stuff with me when we go places...the food's attached to my chest! Plus the extra 500 or so calories per day I use making the milk is probably the reason I am still eating whatever I want and maintaining pre-pregnancy weight.
Modern Science has yet to precisely duplicate breast milk. God must've known what he was doing! So is my body producing liquid gold???
After the show I found myself doing a little Googling. Who would use the milk? It seemed not many takers would actually purchase milk from a stranger online for their babies. I can't say that I blame them...disease can spread through breast milk and the very young are more suseptible. The moral issue that seemed to come up online a lot was that there are babies who need the breast milk, so the milk should be donated. Milk banks pasteurize breast milk then sell it for a whopping 3 or 4 dollars per ounce. It could cost a woman about 80-90 bucks PER DAY to feed her baby with 'donated' breast milk. Wow! SOMEONE is making money...why shouldn't it be the woman who produces the milk?
After doing some research, I found that there are some folks who purchase breast milk online to boost their immune system. There are also men with breast milk fetishes. While I wouldn't want to 'know' what the fetish guys were doing with my milk, I can't say that the knowledge would really be a deterrent for me to sell it. Live and let live. Who am I to judge? It is illegal to sell 'bodily fluids' or unpasteurized dairy products on ebay. Ok. However, there is apparently a market for the stuff. And since the lady on the show sells hers online, there's probably a way to market it.
Hypothetically, if my husband was okay with me marketing my milk, I might be inclined to give it a shot. I'll be making milk as long it is expressed on a regular schedule, regardless if it is consumed by a baby or if I am pumping it. I could definitely beat Milk Bank prices. I would, of course, prefer to have non-freaky clientele. That is people who use breast milk to boost immunity such as cancer patients or someone otherwise immune-deficient. Or I would love, love, to be able to supply a woman who can't get a doctor's prescription for the Milk Bank or who can't pay Milk Bank prices. I lead a healthy lifestyle, don't take drugs, tobacco and have fed two very healthy little guys on my breast milk. I don't know that I would actually follow through with doing something like that. However, it's something to think about...And I certainly don't sit in judgment of the women who do this. Times are tough. I find it fascinating how people are finding creative things to do to make money.
Thar's gold in them thar hills...interesting....
3 comments:
It's funny you post this. Having breastfed my second child until the age of 2 I agree that it was "easy as pie" compared to the bottle thing that I did with my first.
My friend here is one of those breast milk donators. She has told me some stories of what men like to do with breast milk.....she can only hope her milk goes to the right recipients.
If I had known that you could sell breast milk while I was lactating I would have been the first one on the band wagon.
Your title for this post is priceless. LOL
Very interesting post. I read once about a restaurant in Europe that used breastmilk in their recipes.
Something to consider, I guess, LOL. I am still breastfeeding our soon to be 2 yr old.
And I agree that the title of your post is priceless.
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