Liquid Gold: The Booming Market for Human Breast Milk

By Judy Dutton May 17, 2011 | 10:05 pm | Wired June 2011

It started with a bleary-eyed Google search: “Sell breast milk.” Desiree Espinoza had a 2-month-old baby girl but was pumping out enough milk to feed triplets. Ziplock baggies full of the stuff were crammed in her freezer, and unpaid bills crowded her kitchen table. She wasn’t sure there was a market for her overflow or whether selling it was even legal. A few clicks later, she found herself on a website called Only the Breast.

The site looks a lot like craigslist, except instead of selling used cars and like-new Ikea furniture, Only the Breast deals in human breast milk. There are hundreds of posts from new mothers eager to turn their surplus into profits. Many kick off with a chirpy headline (“Chubby baby milk machine!”), then follow with a snapshot of their own robust infant and lush descriptions (“rich, creamy breast milk!” “fresh and fatty!”), making a primal source of nutrition sound like a New York cheesecake. The posts are additionally categorized to appeal to a variety of milk seekers, based on a baby’s age (from 0 to 12 months), say, or special dietary restrictions (dairy- and gluten-free). There’s also a sort of “anything goes” section for women willing to sell to men. Some ship coolers of frozen milk packed in dry ice. Others deal locally, meeting in cafés to exchange cash for commodity. The asking price on Only the Breast runs $1 to $2.50 an ounce. (A 6-month-old baby consumes about 30 ounces a day.)

Intrigued, Espinoza tapped out her sales pitch: “Mostly organic raised breast milk. I have over 500 oz saved and I need to get rid of it. During the week I only eat organic.” A few days later, she was in business, selling the milk at $2 an ounce to a couple of customers in the Phoenix area where she lives, including a mother with a newborn and a man who claimed breast milk helped his immune disorder. “There’s no way I could get a job with an infant, so this helps pay for diapers and clothes,” she says. In three months, the 19-year-old college student earned enough to buy a new laptop and the dress she wore to her wedding to the baby’s 22-year-old father, a recent college grad. She plans to continue selling for a year, and if she can pump a steady 30 ounces a day, she could take in about $20,000.

Only the Breast represents just one facet of the emerging market in human milk. In an era when the benefits of breast milk are better understood and more scientifically certain than ever, demand for it has created a niche industry. Besides sites like Only the Breast, that demand is being met by a handful of all-volunteer women’s groups that help organize free milk donations via Facebook and their own websites. Two prominent ones, Human Milk 4 Human Babies and Eats on Feets (a play on Meals on Wheels), connect thousands of women, facilitating the donation of raw or home-pasteurized milk to new moms in need.

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http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/05/ff_milk/

Is that a fetish?

Yikes!

a nursing mother? I could have easily nursed five or six babies with the amount of milk I was producing. My husband would joke that I'd put several Wisconsin dairies out of business.

buy breast milk off an internet database. You don't know if it's tainted with drugs or infection or diseases. I mean, it's probably fine, but.... do you really want to take a chance with your infant?

I had trouble producing myself; I supplemented with formula. I am much more comfortable doing that than going through something like this. There are breast milk banks (that do test), but they are difficult to buy from. Plus, it's really expensive. Formula is pricey enough!

I suppose it could be described as a 21rst century version of 'the wet-nurse'. This idea may have some potential since everyone knows of the health benefits associated w/breast milk.

That said, someone already made a good point. Unless there is a way to have the milk tested and ok'd as safe, buying something like that off of the internet sounds extremely risky. Who knows what the lactating seller has ingested that could harm the baby? Or, if the money is good enough, the 'product' could be totally bogus, maybe even dangerous. I didn't read beyond what was presented here, so maybe there is a way of testing the milk, but if not I wouldn't risk it if I was a new parent.

Oh and one more thing that just occurred to me- I think I read somewhere that the majority of the health benefits come from the first week or so post-natal, and that after that, formula stands up just as well nutritionally which I think, would defeat the purpose.