Some of you may have seen the piece GMA did on cross nursing. To those of you who didn't, let me explain. Cross nursing is not where you feed your kid even though you are mad at him - been there, done that! - it is where if a woman for whatever reason, nurses another woman's baby. This can be done for several reasons: the baby won't take a bottle (yes, it is possible that the baby doesn't care about societal norms), the mom has supply issues, can't pump enough to make a bottle, or maybe the mom just would rather the baby be getting good for you breast milk rather than man made sludge.
At any rate, because breastfeeding is finally becoming more and more popular, and formula feeding less so, more moms are turning to cross nursing. For instance, I pump for a friend's daughter (seen holding Ollie's hand in picture) and if I thought it would help the little girl, I would move in with her family and breastfeed her from the tap. It wouldn't, so I will not be infiltrating their home. Why not just get the milk from a milk bank you say? Afterall, isn't that what it is for!? Consider this: milk banks charge $5/oz of breastmilk. That is about $20 PER FEEDING!! The normal baby eats about ever three hours, making the grand total per day $160 just to feed a baby exclusively breastmilk. How many people do you know who can afford this? Do you see now why we call it "liquid gold"? Personally, I think it is horrible that these banks charge money at all...they didn't make the milk, all they are is a middle man. You can get a prescription for the banked milk, but insurance companies are far too concerned with old guys getting a woody to pay for babies to eat, so good luck there.
Why not just go with Similac, Enfamil or whatever your doctor is advertising this week? Formula is at best, a good FOURTH option. We all know breast is best, though I prefer to think of it as just normal as best implies that it is best, but something else is normal. The second best would be a mother's expressed milk in a bottle, but as we have talked about, some women can't pump. I think those moms have smart boobies. The third best is a donor's milk either from the tap or bottled. And then, the last resort, formula.
I guess women have a hard time separating the breast from sex. I have even heard some women state that they won't breast feed because their breasts belong to their husbands. Wow, not sure why their husbands won't just drink beer like my husband...seems selfish. Also, I wonder if these women had vaginal deliveries, seems like the vagina is far more sexual than two glorified baby feeders! My point is, that if nursing your own baby is beautiful, than nursing two babies are twice as beautiful. Don't believe me? Ask a woman who's baby has been saved by donor milk. The container doesn't matter when the contents are love.
2 comments:
I totally agree with you on this, but since I used to be on the Board of the local milk bank (see, I actually used to do something useful), I know that while the milk is free, finding the mothers, testing the mothers, ensuring the milk is sterile, pasteurization, and proper storage, among other things, is not. Thus, it costs money. Ridiculous, I know. But, that's our lovely medical system. They have all these legal considerations to deal with, which two people on the street won't have (one hopes--until some baby gets sick and its mother blames the milk donor).
Thank you Suna for your comment as well! I work for a non-profit milk bank and while the cost does seem strange for milk that is donated, we actually only charge hospitals about half of what it actually costs for all the processing. Since donor milk usually goes to NICU babies, we have to make sure it is completed free of anything that would harm a premature or ill infant.
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