Buying Breast Milk? What Is That All About?

breast milkWe are well aware of breast milk being best for a child and even mothers who are unable to provide their own milk for their baby (because of an adoption or because the milk did not come in or because of an infection etc), still want to give their babies this benefit.

For this reason, it has been made possible to actually buy breast milk and milk banks have therefore been set up under the guidance of The Human Milk Banking Association of North America (HMBA).

It is necessary to have a doctor’s prescription to obtain breast milk and it will set you back a fair sum (on an average, an ounce of breast milk will cost two or three dollars, though insurance may cover part of this cost). This is a pretty systematic process: firstly lactating mothers are screened for being appropriate and healthy, and then the milk is pasteurized.

In the alternative, breast milk can be obtained from a wet nurse who can express milk for a particular baby or who can directly breast feed an infant if it is convenient to do so. It is possible to find a wet nurse from a list of those available for a particular area.

When buying breast milk from a wet nurse one needs to be very careful about screening since a variety of infections and diseases can pass on to a baby through breast milk.

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