Breast milk, or mother's milk, is traditionally monitored by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. Breast milk provided by the 10 American milk banks is primarily provided to premature and neo-natal babies.
Much like a blood or tissue donor, potential mother's milk donors are heavily screened for diseases, lifestyle choices, STDs and other factors before allowing to give milk to a milk bank.
Following the donation, milk is processed and pasteurized before it is provided to children in need.
The business of selling breast milk online is largely unregulated in most states, with very little screening other than an informal vetting process between the buyer and seller. Websites such as www.onlythebreast.com provide a venue through which buyers and sellers can meet, pitch sales and eventually ship mother's milk to each other. Another website, www.eatsonfeets.org, is strictly altruistic and only allows families to participate in "milk sharing."
The argument from supporters of mother's milk websites is that milk distributed directly from another mother is fresher and closer to the source than a milk bank's milk, which is often not available to the larger public and requires a longer process between drawing of milk and delivery to a child.
Jennifer Feuerstein, a self-employed massage therapist caring for her six-week old boy, is a vendor on Only The Breast hoping to make a few extra dollars while business is slow following maternity leave.
"I thought it sounded like a really good industry," Feuerstein said. "It just seemed more organic to me to buy it straight from a person as opposed to going through a bank."
However, the practice sets a dangerous precedent, according to Neonatologist and Director of Intensive Care Nurseries Dr. Jeff Hanson with Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at Presbyterian/St. Luke's.
"It's just like buying blood, sperm, or other bodily fluids from a random person online. You wouldn't do that. So why would you buy breast milk that hasn't been tested or treated and then feed that to your newborn?" Hanson said. "It's not smart, it's dangerous, and it's something we're avidly against. You don't really know what's in it."
The FDA has endorsed donor human milk banking and deemed informal sharing of human milk to be unsafe. However, aside from California and New York, there aren't many state or local laws with teeth to stop the practice online.
(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)