Wet-nursing revival | It's My Health

We all know breast is best when it comes to feeding our babies but how would you feel about your newborn drinking a stranger?s breast milk?

Natalie Scobie, a mother of four, is in no doubt that donated human milk was the best option for her child Max when he needed additional nutrition, and says she was totally comfortable taking it from a complete stranger.

?Max had attachment issues when he was born so we switched to exclusively using expressed? milk but he needed more than I could manage so we looked for donors that were within easy travelling distance from us,? she says.

Preferring breast milk to formula, Natalie joined the Facebook milk-sharing network ? Human Milk 4 Human Babies which enabled her to source all the milk Max needed over a nine-month period.

?From the reading I?d done, giving my baby human milk was a better option than something processed and artificial,? she says.? ?We did have some initial concerns but all the women we received donations from offered antenatal blood test results and they were also feeding their own babies so that was reassuring.?

Milk pumps are generally used by donors to express milk which is then frozen or refrigerated until needed.

Milk sharing is a contentious issue

Reported to have 4,000 Australian members, HM4HB is just one of many online communities that have revived the wet-nursing tradition by matching donor to recipient, but not everyone is welcoming this growing practice.

Speaking on behalf of the Australian Medical Association, obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Gino Pecoraro is just one of many health professionals who have expressed alarm about? widespread breast milk sharing and says he was surprised to hear the practice actually existed.

?This is the first I?ve heard of it,? he says when approached by It?s My Health.? ?However, on face value I can?t get past the inherent risks.? What guarantee do you have that it?s human breast milk and what guarantee is there that these antenatal blood tests are still applicable?? How are they transporting it and how do you know it hasn?t thawed and then been refrozen?

?I?m not trying to create fear but isn?t that why there are proper run breast milk banks with all the checks and balances undertaken to ensure it?s a safe product??

RMT University?s Dr Jennifer James, a midwife and lactation specialist, responds to Pecoraro?s last comment by pointing out that Australia has only three human milk banks providing a screened and pasturised product ? located in? Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales ? and that these facilities are unable to meet demand.

?The best these milk banks can do is supply milk to neonatal babies in special care.? There simply isn?t the supply available to offer it to well babies,? she says.

Midwives are generally supportive of milk sharing

An advocate of milk sharing online, James says she encourages the theory behind it and that setting up environments like HM4HB is a ?very good way to go about it?.

?It?s a good thing; a lovely thing; a generous thing to do,? she says of the donors.? ?The health ramifications are minimal and the risk of transmitting disease is very, very small.?

?You have to think about why these women are doing it; why they are giving so generously and offering something of their own that they have worked so hard for. The chances of somebody using crack cocaine is remote unless there was money in it.?

Poor hygiene and bacteria primary concerns

But crack cocaine and associated infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis are not Pecoraro?s main concern.? He says it?s more likely that poor hygiene could negatively affect milk quality or result in bacterial contamination.

?What happens if there is an adverse reaction due to good old fashioned strep or strap [bacteria],? he says.? ?We are giving this product to the most vulnerable people in this world ? little babies ? and potentially exposing them to pathogens or bacteria from bad storage or bad hygiene.?

Milk sharing seen as preferable to formula

While acknowledging that nothing is ?risk free?, James sees breast milk sharing as preferable to formula, pointing out that artificial infant milk powders ?also carry a lot of risk?.

?Formula is such an inferior product,? she says.? ?Sure it gives basic nutrition but it?s far from optimal.? In fact, with formula there is a much greater risk of a whole host of problems including gastrointestinal issues, respiratory problems, allergies and developmental things.?

James believes much of the negativity surrounding breast milk sharing is due to cultural sensitivities.?

?This sort of thing doesn?t get talked about much because of the yuck factor.? People still think about it as a bodily fluid but it?s an extraordinary substance, a living substance which changes with the time of the day and in line with the age of the baby.? The fact that breast milk is sometimes likened to urine is unfortunate but I?m really not sure how you overcome that perception.?

Why do women donate their milk?

Leaving the experts to argue it out, Natalie remains in awe of those altruistic women who are willing to spend a significant amount of time expressing milk for somebody else?s baby. ?She is also of the view that milk sharing is safer for babies than formula as long as its inherent risks are keenly managed.

?There was nothing in it for my donor so there was no reason for me to feel sceptical about it. I am just unbelievably appreciative and amazed to be the recipient of such generosity.?

Thirty four year-old Natalie Kane is one such selfless donor.? Pregnant with her third child, she has happily breastfed other people?s babies when needed and now intends to regularly donate some of her milk after she gives birth in May.

?I?ve just moved to rural New South Wales where I see a lot of bottle-fed babies whose mothers had trouble breastfeeding and saw their only option as [using] formula so I have offered to admin a Facebook page to get a milk sharing community going out here,? she says.

?There is a sense of accomplishment when you can feed your own baby so if you can help another mother do that it?s very special.? There is a lot of trust involved.??

Unlike age-old practices like wet-nursing and ?cross-nursing? where feeding is reciprocated among friends and family, milk sharing among strangers is a new phenomenon made possible by social media.?

Anecdotally, midwives appear to be generally supportive of the practice but it remains to be seen whether the broader health community will give it the collective thumbs up.

Meanwhile, mothers like Natalie Scobie and Natalie Kane are keen to spread the word to give women a greater choice when it comes to feeding their babies.

?I think it?s important that women who can?t breastfeed know there?s an alternative to formula,? Natalie Scobie says.? ?You can post your needs [on social media] or your offer of milk and then it?s up to the two women involved to sort it out.? Really it?s just doing what mothers have always done except it?s on a greater scale.?

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Source: http://www.itsmyhealth.com.au/general-health/wet-nursing-revival

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