June 29, 2011 • 16 mins
While some mothers throw away extra breast milk, there are tons of other options. Breast milk banks test donors and sell bottled milk to hospitals. Other women prefer to donate it to someone in their community or sell it on the web. Tune in to learn more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom Never told you?
From house stuff works dot com. Hello, Welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristin Christina and talk about
(00:21):
breast milk. Breast milk. I've already done one podcast on breastfeeding, yes,
and we pretty much focused on the benefits, or you know,
the alleged benefits, because some people aren't completely sold on it.
Of feeding milk to your child through your breast, the bonding,
the fatty uh minerals that go through to the to
the baby. But there's someone out there who can't breastfeed,
(00:44):
and there's someone out there who make a ton of
excess breast milk, and there's some babies who can't drink formula.
Can all these people meet in the middle, And that
is what this podcast is about. Because we're gonna talk
about breast milk banks, we're gonna talk about breast milk swaps,
we're gonna talk about selling your breast milk, yes, And
we're not going to get into, like Molly said, the
(01:05):
pros and the potential cons of breastfeeding, where the breast
is best, and all of that debate we have a
separate episode where we cover all those points. We're just
gonna stick to the banking and the bank and all
the extra stuff. So let's start with the milk banks,
which are I was surprised to find kind of a
big historical thing. Um. The first milk bank was established
(01:30):
in Vienna, Austria in nineteen o nine, and by nineteen
nineteen there was one in Boston and another in Germany.
And basically in the early twenty century, there were a
lot of ill and premature children, and the mothers who
could make extra milk were asked to give it to
those sick babies, and the sick babies thrived. So people
were like, hey, it seems like maybe if we can
(01:52):
give some excess breast milk to the sick babies who
whose mothers maybe can't feed them because they're orphaned or
because they were born so prematurely that milk hasn't come in,
maybe they will get better. Right. And of course this
milk banking, breast milk banking practice traces back to wet nursing,
when you know women who couldn't produce would give their
or wealthier women would have another milk producing lady breastfeed
(02:17):
their child for them. In fact, in the thirteenth century,
European women made more money working as wet nurses than
any other occupation open to women. But I wonder in
the thirteen centuries there were many options. I'm sure there weren't,
But the idea of using someone's milk that wasn't your
own is a very old concept, and so that's why, um,
you know, milk banks eventually came up in that early
(02:38):
twenty century, and now there are several located all around
the US and all around the world, and they are
designed so that women who have excess breast milk can
donate it after going through a huge battery of tests,
because you can spread infection through best breast milk. They
go through the test, they sack up their breast milk
in a certain way, and they send it off to
the bank, and the bank can then ship it out
(03:00):
to premature infants, orphans, people who have immune deficiencies because
breast milk might help them. And there are a ton
of actual stories where it just really helps those infants
thrive in a very hard situation. Right For instance, um,
they think that premature babies for fed breast milk will
have shorter stays up to fifteen days on average in
(03:22):
neonatal intensive care units, and they're less likely to develop
retina problems that can lead to poor vision. And they
also think that breast milk protects against an intestinal disease
that premature infants are especially susceptible to. Now there are
some studies that also say that we need more evidence
(03:42):
that donor breast milk has such wonderful qualities, because, like
you said, there there is risk for infection that can
be spread through breast milk, but there has never in
this country been an adverse effect after using a breast
milk bank, probably because of the amount of testing that
milk banks do for their owners and on the milk. However,
(04:03):
breast milk, because it is qualified as a food, is
not regulated by the f d A or the CDC,
so it's it's somewhat of an unregulated industry. But as
I said, no safety incidents yet and pretty pricey. And
it's pretty pricey, and this is coming from information from
the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, which was
(04:24):
formed in and it seems like the pretty much the
Cornerstone milk Banking organization in the US, and while it
isn't FDA regulated, they do a lot of testing not
only on the mothers who donate, but then on the
milk as well and pasteurized in a very specific kind
of way. It's an extensive process and as a result,
(04:44):
the milk is not exactly cheap. It typically goes four
up to three three dollars to four fifty per ounce.
And you think, oh, it's just a few bucks. Well,
if your infant is drinking the average thirty ounces per day,
that is some pricing milk. It's like golden milk. And
(05:06):
insurance doesn't cover this. Yeah, that's one of the next
I think fight. We'll see that milk banks try and
uh fight is getting insurance companies to cover this. But
as you said, these studies are saying, we can't quite
be sure yet if all this anecdotal evidence that breast
milk is good for babies carries on, if it's just
don't or milk, or if it needs to come straight
from a woman's the mother's breast, and so on and
(05:27):
so forth, but the need is absolutely there. Um. The
Human Milk Bank Association of North America h Jim Banna. Um,
really they're running low on milk. They saw a nearly
fourfold increase in milk distribution from two thousand to two
thousand nine, But a lot of the banks dotted around
the country, UM are running low. And they're wondering whether
(05:50):
these milk banks are running low because of the Internet
and something called milk swapping. Yeah, let's say that you
have all this excess milk and it doesn't feel right
to you to ask some mother of a premature infant
to buy it for three fifty announce and you don't
want to throw it away. You don't want to throw
(06:11):
it away, and you also don't like this idea of
like shipping it up and mailing it seems like a
big castle. You can turn to the internet, dial up
a website and you can find hundreds of communities where
women are swapping milk among their own friends and among
their own towns. So you can say, instead of shipping
the soft where someone has to buy it, I can
(06:31):
give it to the baby next door. Then this woman
I are going to have, you know, a bond. It
builds friendships. It's all free, and milk swaps are sort
of the the big thing going on right now. Right
A couple of the main groups are eats on feats
in milk share, and I think we should also note
that people who women who donate to the milk banks
(06:52):
through the Milk Bank Association in North America aren't compensated.
And it's similar with the milk swap. It's like the
recycle thing. You just you're you're trading. I know, I've
got this great thing that women need. I can give
it to someone who needs it, whether it's you know,
a woman down the street who adopted a baby, a
woman who had surgery on her breasts and can't produce milk.
(07:13):
It's a way to build community quarantities women and to
not have to go through all the runaround that a
milk bank would make you go through. And there's also
a really cool project called the International Breast Milk Project
that sends UM breast milk abroad. Is particularly to African
mothers because of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS because
(07:34):
HIV and AIDS can transfer through breast milk and formula
will often be mixed with unclean water. So the International
Breast Milk Project provides these African mothers with UM with
breast milk that isn't that isn't changed potentially with HIV
and AIDS that will then be passed onto their babies. Right.
(07:54):
But what the milk banks are saying is that, yeah,
it's great to give the breast milk to a neighbor.
It's wonderful that we want to donate breast milk abroad.
But the reason that their breast milk costs three ounce
is they're underwriting all that testing that a donor goes through.
And so that's sort of the big controversies that in
a milk swap you don't have to go through all
that testing. You're kind of trusting a woman who, yes,
(08:16):
is breastfeeding her own child, but you know, could you
possibly passing on some sort of disease or infection to
your own And in addition just to the screening that
mothers who are donating to the milk banks have to
go through, there's also a pasteurization process that will eliminate
bacteria from the breast milk, and then they will fur
their test samples for bacterial growth, and then the milk
(08:38):
will be sealed in four ounce glass bottles and delivered
frozen to a milk bank so it's it's a much
more rigorous process. Yeah, so someone are saying it's better
for me just to be able to walk down the
street and give the breast milk to someone in my
community who needs it. And as with most things involving breastfeeding,
it's kind of controversial. Should you milk bank, should you
(08:58):
milk swap um, It's it's kind of a big debate
right now in terms of what you should do with
all this excess milk, and perhaps one of the most
controversial options of what to do with excess breast milk,
should you sell it? Sell it? Money's gotta go. I mean,
you've just had a baby, you can't really work. Maybe
maybe you can make a lot of money. I mean,
if it's fetching, if it's fetching three bucks and ounce.
(09:19):
There is a story about this in Wired magazine and
it profiled one woman who is she was a single mom.
I think she was putting herself through school. She discovered
that she could sell her breast milk online. And she
only an organic diet, took care of herself, you know,
it didn't smoke things like that, and she made twenty
grand Yeah in a year. I mean, I mean, that's
(09:43):
enough for me to have a baby, But you gotta
start questioning at this point. I mean, so far I've
talked about babies in Africa, premature infants. It's all very altruistic.
All of a sudden, when you start putting money on
it, it it gets really kind of creepy because there are
a lot of men apparently who just want to buy
a breastcatres. There are some sexual fetishes that go along
(10:03):
with buying breast milk and um. So, you know, on
the one hand, it's great that this one was able
to make so much money to put herself through school
and support her infant, but it seems like the more
money that's involved, the kind of creepier it gets in
terms of of where the money is going and how
we're going to protect the process of woman breastfeeding right,
And I can understand the ethical quandaries associated with selling
(10:25):
your breast milk. At the same time, to me, the
fact that there is a market for it is indicative
of a the need that's not being met and also
the need for more maternal support that isn't being meant
that that a woman instead of you know, is having
to think about how she can make ends meet to
care for her child and is having to sell her
breast milk online. Very true, except I'm thinking of a
(10:48):
quote from Salon Christian that said, once it's a product
and it's sellable, how do we protect the process? The
minute you turn breastfeeding into a product, you're creating less
of a culture that's supporting the process. So, I mean
that makes some sense to me in terms of if
it's if it's only something that brings money to people. Uh, well,
we still have the laws that protect a woman's right
to have a lactation room, um, to build a breastfeed
(11:10):
in public. So it's very interesting. And the Salon article
I cited was asking the question, would you eat breast
milk ice cream? Yes? The baby Gaga I screamed that
I'm sure a lot of you all out there have
heard about. Was what country was he making this? And
this wasn't in the US. This guy in London ice
cream maker decided, Hey, why don't I make some ice
(11:32):
cream with breast milk instead of cow's milk? And he did,
and he called it baby Gaga, And at first the
food safety folks over in the UK said, oh my goodness.
So they got pulled off. But then, um, they're going
to actually let him make and sell this breast milk
(11:52):
ice cream. But now Lady Gaga's lawyers are on them,
which I would be far more frightened of Lady Gaga's
lawyers than food safe jeanspectors. But another quote from that
article that stood out to me was from a woman
who works with the nonprofit Mother's Milk Bank in Austin,
and she writes that the reason maybe that people are
kind of um picked out by the idea of eating
breast milk, I s because let's admit, it's not something
(12:13):
everyone wants to eat necessarily different. We have sort of
taboos about breast milk, I think in this country. Sure,
But she writes that that taboo exists for a reason.
So long as there were taboos, they protected babies from
the misappropriation of milk by people who are bigger and stronger,
and who, being adults, could procure and process other foods independently.
(12:34):
So it all goes back to if we sell our
breast milk, will the premature infants get the milk that
they need, or you know it will It becomes sort
of a luxury market for people who want the exotic
experience of drinking about breast milk. But I will say
I don't think that a woman selling her breast milk
on her own is I mean, if we're talking about
(12:57):
better or worse, I mean, I think that much better
than say California based company pro Lacta, which is the
first corporation to develop and sell breast milk for a profit.
Um to me, that is the negative direction that this
could go in. Like, yes, it would. It preserves the
process and the pasteurization and make sure that everything is
(13:21):
very clean in bacteria free. But for instance, an average
ten weeks supply of the Prolacta bioscience product will cost
over ten grand for baby, and the mothers aren't compensated
for it. So it's tricky. It's tricky, And at this point,
I'd love to open it up and here, if we've
got listeners out there who have donated breast milk, who
(13:41):
have gotten breast milk donations, if you have worked on
a milk swap, what is your relationship to don't our
breast milk? And should it be fine for women to
sell their breast milk if they want to? Let us
know your thoughts, Mom stuff at how stuff Works dot
com is our email address, and now we'll read a
couple of listener emails. I have an email here from Aaron.
(14:04):
It's about the Human Trafficking podcast, and she writes, I
just wanted to let you guys know about an organization
called Raffa House. Rafa House is a group of dedicated
individuals that work toward free girls that are trapped in
sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. The girls are taken to
safe houses and rehabilitated. They're also taught different traits so
that they can make money for themselves or for their
families without being involved in prostitution. It's a very cool
(14:26):
resource for everyone to look up Rafa House. I've had
an email here from a Lana about the human Trafficking episode,
and she writes that this is an issue dear to
my heart and everyone should do their part to protect
other people. When I lived in Los Angeles, a group
of women I knew would go around to massage parlors
in any other place that might be suspicious, investigate in
whatever ways they could. And I know that Atlanta, where
(14:50):
you and I are, Molly, is a really big hub
for human trafficking. And yes, she is right states trying
to pass laws regarding that, and she says there's some
great resource in groups that are putting a lot of
energy into liberating as many people as possible. And they
include International Justice Mission, which is a lot of legal
professionals who are putting their skills to good use. And
(15:11):
other here in other countries, night Light which is which
works with a lot of women and they have a
lot of good information as well. And then hand in Cloth.
She says, this is my favorite and I planned to
go visit possibly next summer. A woman started this business
is a way for women in Kolkata, India to have
an option other than selling themselves. The women learn a
(15:32):
certain type of stitch from their mothers and they stitch
their stories into every blanket that they make out of
old stories. They are beautiful and accessible way to support women.
So I hope you find these interesting and continue to
use your positions to share the knowledge. And that's what
we aim to do. Share knowledge and share knowledge with us.
(15:53):
Mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com is our email.
If you'd like to get in touch with us on Facebook,
you can find us. They're like us, leave a comment,
interact with listeners You can also follow us over on
Twitter at Mom Stuff Podcast, and finally, you can check
out our blog during the week, It's Stuff Mom Never
Told You from how Stuff Works dot com. Be sure
(16:16):
to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
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Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
(16:37):
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom Never told you?
From house stuff works dot com. Hello, Welcome to the podcast.
This is Molly and I'm Kristin Christina and talk about
(00:21):
breast milk. Breast milk. I've already done one podcast on breastfeeding, yes,
and we pretty much focused on the benefits, or you know,
the alleged benefits, because some people aren't completely sold on it.
Of feeding milk to your child through your breast, the bonding,
the fatty uh minerals that go through to the to
the baby. But there's someone out there who can't breastfeed,
(00:44):
and there's someone out there who make a ton of
excess breast milk, and there's some babies who can't drink formula.
Can all these people meet in the middle, And that
is what this podcast is about. Because we're gonna talk
about breast milk banks, we're gonna talk about breast milk swaps,
we're gonna talk about selling your breast milk, yes, And
we're not going to get into, like Molly said, the
(01:05):
pros and the potential cons of breastfeeding, where the breast
is best, and all of that debate we have a
separate episode where we cover all those points. We're just
gonna stick to the banking and the bank and all
the extra stuff. So let's start with the milk banks,
which are I was surprised to find kind of a
big historical thing. Um. The first milk bank was established
(01:30):
in Vienna, Austria in nineteen o nine, and by nineteen
nineteen there was one in Boston and another in Germany.
And basically in the early twenty century, there were a
lot of ill and premature children, and the mothers who
could make extra milk were asked to give it to
those sick babies, and the sick babies thrived. So people
were like, hey, it seems like maybe if we can
(01:52):
give some excess breast milk to the sick babies who
whose mothers maybe can't feed them because they're orphaned or
because they were born so prematurely that milk hasn't come in,
maybe they will get better. Right. And of course this
milk banking, breast milk banking practice traces back to wet nursing,
when you know women who couldn't produce would give their
or wealthier women would have another milk producing lady breastfeed
(02:17):
their child for them. In fact, in the thirteenth century,
European women made more money working as wet nurses than
any other occupation open to women. But I wonder in
the thirteen centuries there were many options. I'm sure there weren't,
But the idea of using someone's milk that wasn't your
own is a very old concept, and so that's why, um,
you know, milk banks eventually came up in that early
(02:38):
twenty century, and now there are several located all around
the US and all around the world, and they are
designed so that women who have excess breast milk can
donate it after going through a huge battery of tests,
because you can spread infection through best breast milk. They
go through the test, they sack up their breast milk
in a certain way, and they send it off to
the bank, and the bank can then ship it out
(03:00):
to premature infants, orphans, people who have immune deficiencies because
breast milk might help them. And there are a ton
of actual stories where it just really helps those infants
thrive in a very hard situation. Right For instance, um,
they think that premature babies for fed breast milk will
have shorter stays up to fifteen days on average in
(03:22):
neonatal intensive care units, and they're less likely to develop
retina problems that can lead to poor vision. And they
also think that breast milk protects against an intestinal disease
that premature infants are especially susceptible to. Now there are
some studies that also say that we need more evidence
(03:42):
that donor breast milk has such wonderful qualities, because, like
you said, there there is risk for infection that can
be spread through breast milk, but there has never in
this country been an adverse effect after using a breast
milk bank, probably because of the amount of testing that
milk banks do for their owners and on the milk. However,
(04:03):
breast milk, because it is qualified as a food, is
not regulated by the f d A or the CDC,
so it's it's somewhat of an unregulated industry. But as
I said, no safety incidents yet and pretty pricey. And
it's pretty pricey, and this is coming from information from
the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, which was
(04:24):
formed in and it seems like the pretty much the
Cornerstone milk Banking organization in the US, and while it
isn't FDA regulated, they do a lot of testing not
only on the mothers who donate, but then on the
milk as well and pasteurized in a very specific kind
of way. It's an extensive process and as a result,
(04:44):
the milk is not exactly cheap. It typically goes four
up to three three dollars to four fifty per ounce.
And you think, oh, it's just a few bucks. Well,
if your infant is drinking the average thirty ounces per day,
that is some pricing milk. It's like golden milk. And
(05:06):
insurance doesn't cover this. Yeah, that's one of the next
I think fight. We'll see that milk banks try and
uh fight is getting insurance companies to cover this. But
as you said, these studies are saying, we can't quite
be sure yet if all this anecdotal evidence that breast
milk is good for babies carries on, if it's just
don't or milk, or if it needs to come straight
from a woman's the mother's breast, and so on and
(05:27):
so forth, but the need is absolutely there. Um. The
Human Milk Bank Association of North America h Jim Banna. Um,
really they're running low on milk. They saw a nearly
fourfold increase in milk distribution from two thousand to two
thousand nine, But a lot of the banks dotted around
the country, UM are running low. And they're wondering whether
(05:50):
these milk banks are running low because of the Internet
and something called milk swapping. Yeah, let's say that you
have all this excess milk and it doesn't feel right
to you to ask some mother of a premature infant
to buy it for three fifty announce and you don't
want to throw it away. You don't want to throw
(06:11):
it away, and you also don't like this idea of
like shipping it up and mailing it seems like a
big castle. You can turn to the internet, dial up
a website and you can find hundreds of communities where
women are swapping milk among their own friends and among
their own towns. So you can say, instead of shipping
the soft where someone has to buy it, I can
(06:31):
give it to the baby next door. Then this woman
I are going to have, you know, a bond. It
builds friendships. It's all free, and milk swaps are sort
of the the big thing going on right now. Right
A couple of the main groups are eats on feats
in milk share, and I think we should also note
that people who women who donate to the milk banks
(06:52):
through the Milk Bank Association in North America aren't compensated.
And it's similar with the milk swap. It's like the
recycle thing. You just you're you're trading. I know, I've
got this great thing that women need. I can give
it to someone who needs it, whether it's you know,
a woman down the street who adopted a baby, a
woman who had surgery on her breasts and can't produce milk.
(07:13):
It's a way to build community quarantities women and to
not have to go through all the runaround that a
milk bank would make you go through. And there's also
a really cool project called the International Breast Milk Project
that sends UM breast milk abroad. Is particularly to African
mothers because of the prevalence of HIV and AIDS because
(07:34):
HIV and AIDS can transfer through breast milk and formula
will often be mixed with unclean water. So the International
Breast Milk Project provides these African mothers with UM with
breast milk that isn't that isn't changed potentially with HIV
and AIDS that will then be passed onto their babies. Right.
(07:54):
But what the milk banks are saying is that, yeah,
it's great to give the breast milk to a neighbor.
It's wonderful that we want to donate breast milk abroad.
But the reason that their breast milk costs three ounce
is they're underwriting all that testing that a donor goes through.
And so that's sort of the big controversies that in
a milk swap you don't have to go through all
that testing. You're kind of trusting a woman who, yes,
(08:16):
is breastfeeding her own child, but you know, could you
possibly passing on some sort of disease or infection to
your own And in addition just to the screening that
mothers who are donating to the milk banks have to
go through, there's also a pasteurization process that will eliminate
bacteria from the breast milk, and then they will fur
their test samples for bacterial growth, and then the milk
(08:38):
will be sealed in four ounce glass bottles and delivered
frozen to a milk bank so it's it's a much
more rigorous process. Yeah, so someone are saying it's better
for me just to be able to walk down the
street and give the breast milk to someone in my
community who needs it. And as with most things involving breastfeeding,
it's kind of controversial. Should you milk bank, should you
(08:58):
milk swap um, It's it's kind of a big debate
right now in terms of what you should do with
all this excess milk, and perhaps one of the most
controversial options of what to do with excess breast milk,
should you sell it? Sell it? Money's gotta go. I mean,
you've just had a baby, you can't really work. Maybe
maybe you can make a lot of money. I mean,
if it's fetching, if it's fetching three bucks and ounce.
(09:19):
There is a story about this in Wired magazine and
it profiled one woman who is she was a single mom.
I think she was putting herself through school. She discovered
that she could sell her breast milk online. And she
only an organic diet, took care of herself, you know,
it didn't smoke things like that, and she made twenty
grand Yeah in a year. I mean, I mean, that's
(09:43):
enough for me to have a baby, But you gotta
start questioning at this point. I mean, so far I've
talked about babies in Africa, premature infants. It's all very altruistic.
All of a sudden, when you start putting money on
it, it it gets really kind of creepy because there are
a lot of men apparently who just want to buy
a breastcatres. There are some sexual fetishes that go along
(10:03):
with buying breast milk and um. So, you know, on
the one hand, it's great that this one was able
to make so much money to put herself through school
and support her infant, but it seems like the more
money that's involved, the kind of creepier it gets in
terms of of where the money is going and how
we're going to protect the process of woman breastfeeding right,
And I can understand the ethical quandaries associated with selling
(10:25):
your breast milk. At the same time, to me, the
fact that there is a market for it is indicative
of a the need that's not being met and also
the need for more maternal support that isn't being meant
that that a woman instead of you know, is having
to think about how she can make ends meet to
care for her child and is having to sell her
breast milk online. Very true, except I'm thinking of a
(10:48):
quote from Salon Christian that said, once it's a product
and it's sellable, how do we protect the process? The
minute you turn breastfeeding into a product, you're creating less
of a culture that's supporting the process. So, I mean
that makes some sense to me in terms of if
it's if it's only something that brings money to people. Uh, well,
we still have the laws that protect a woman's right
to have a lactation room, um, to build a breastfeed
(11:10):
in public. So it's very interesting. And the Salon article
I cited was asking the question, would you eat breast
milk ice cream? Yes? The baby Gaga I screamed that
I'm sure a lot of you all out there have
heard about. Was what country was he making this? And
this wasn't in the US. This guy in London ice
cream maker decided, Hey, why don't I make some ice
(11:32):
cream with breast milk instead of cow's milk? And he did,
and he called it baby Gaga, And at first the
food safety folks over in the UK said, oh my goodness.
So they got pulled off. But then, um, they're going
to actually let him make and sell this breast milk
(11:52):
ice cream. But now Lady Gaga's lawyers are on them,
which I would be far more frightened of Lady Gaga's
lawyers than food safe jeanspectors. But another quote from that
article that stood out to me was from a woman
who works with the nonprofit Mother's Milk Bank in Austin,
and she writes that the reason maybe that people are
kind of um picked out by the idea of eating
breast milk, I s because let's admit, it's not something
(12:13):
everyone wants to eat necessarily different. We have sort of
taboos about breast milk, I think in this country. Sure,
But she writes that that taboo exists for a reason.
So long as there were taboos, they protected babies from
the misappropriation of milk by people who are bigger and stronger,
and who, being adults, could procure and process other foods independently.
(12:34):
So it all goes back to if we sell our
breast milk, will the premature infants get the milk that
they need, or you know it will It becomes sort
of a luxury market for people who want the exotic
experience of drinking about breast milk. But I will say
I don't think that a woman selling her breast milk
on her own is I mean, if we're talking about
(12:57):
better or worse, I mean, I think that much better
than say California based company pro Lacta, which is the
first corporation to develop and sell breast milk for a profit.
Um to me, that is the negative direction that this
could go in. Like, yes, it would. It preserves the
process and the pasteurization and make sure that everything is
(13:21):
very clean in bacteria free. But for instance, an average
ten weeks supply of the Prolacta bioscience product will cost
over ten grand for baby, and the mothers aren't compensated
for it. So it's tricky. It's tricky, And at this point,
I'd love to open it up and here, if we've
got listeners out there who have donated breast milk, who
(13:41):
have gotten breast milk donations, if you have worked on
a milk swap, what is your relationship to don't our
breast milk? And should it be fine for women to
sell their breast milk if they want to? Let us
know your thoughts, Mom stuff at how stuff Works dot
com is our email address, and now we'll read a
couple of listener emails. I have an email here from Aaron.
(14:04):
It's about the Human Trafficking podcast, and she writes, I
just wanted to let you guys know about an organization
called Raffa House. Rafa House is a group of dedicated
individuals that work toward free girls that are trapped in
sex trafficking in Southeast Asia. The girls are taken to
safe houses and rehabilitated. They're also taught different traits so
that they can make money for themselves or for their
families without being involved in prostitution. It's a very cool
(14:26):
resource for everyone to look up Rafa House. I've had
an email here from a Lana about the human Trafficking episode,
and she writes that this is an issue dear to
my heart and everyone should do their part to protect
other people. When I lived in Los Angeles, a group
of women I knew would go around to massage parlors
in any other place that might be suspicious, investigate in
whatever ways they could. And I know that Atlanta, where
(14:50):
you and I are, Molly, is a really big hub
for human trafficking. And yes, she is right states trying
to pass laws regarding that, and she says there's some
great resource in groups that are putting a lot of
energy into liberating as many people as possible. And they
include International Justice Mission, which is a lot of legal
professionals who are putting their skills to good use. And
(15:11):
other here in other countries, night Light which is which
works with a lot of women and they have a
lot of good information as well. And then hand in Cloth.
She says, this is my favorite and I planned to
go visit possibly next summer. A woman started this business
is a way for women in Kolkata, India to have
an option other than selling themselves. The women learn a
(15:32):
certain type of stitch from their mothers and they stitch
their stories into every blanket that they make out of
old stories. They are beautiful and accessible way to support women.
So I hope you find these interesting and continue to
use your positions to share the knowledge. And that's what
we aim to do. Share knowledge and share knowledge with us.
(15:53):
Mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com is our email.
If you'd like to get in touch with us on Facebook,
you can find us. They're like us, leave a comment,
interact with listeners You can also follow us over on
Twitter at Mom Stuff Podcast, and finally, you can check
out our blog during the week, It's Stuff Mom Never
Told You from how Stuff Works dot com. Be sure
(16:16):
to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.
Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most
promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The house Stuff Works
iPhone app has a ride. Download it today on iTunes.
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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