November 28, 2006

• This is beautiful, and also encouraging that technology (transportation, communication, refrigeration, etc.) can be used for something so important. Thanks for the nourishing link.
• Breast milk for monkeys.
• There are not enough breast milk banks in North America to meet the demand - and now for-profit companies want a piece of that market. Both non-profits and for-profits take donated milk - the mothers are not paid. The milk is sold at $3+ an ounce (shipping/handling expenses), by prescription, although the for-profits want to charge ten times as much (and sell directly to hospitals/clinics). Some insurance providers will cover the cost of breast milk (for premature babies, usually) but often it has to be paid for, leading to concerns that mothers will purchase milk privately without proper screening. Further: HMBANA (Human Milk Banking Association of North America) Milkbanking.net (for other milk banks) MilkShare (private donation facilitator) I very much wanted to donate when I was breastfeeding, but couldn't find anywhere close enough to take it. I am happy to see how quickly more donation outlets are becoming available and that the issue is getting more visibility.
• What a refreshing change away from the Immorality of Marketing Formula. This letter linked was dated 2006, but be aware that Nestle has been killing kids for profit since 1939 The easy answer is to breast feed whenever possible. But of course, nothing is ever easy. The Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) claims that 20 percent of babies born to HIV-positive mothers become infected during pregnancy and delivery, while about 14 percent become infected during breastfeeding. Worldwide, it estimates, 300 children are infected each day through breastfeeding, a figure that represents about 20 percent of the 1,500 children infected each day with HIV. But if 1,500 children per day are said to be infected with HIV, 33,000 children under the age of five die each day from preventable diseases and malnutrition, "against which breastfeeding can provide an essential defense," according to the International Lactation Consultants Association's Position Statement on this subject. For mothers and babies in developing countries, breastmilk is not a lifestyle choice, but the difference between life and death. For this reason, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have consistently and strongly recommended breastfeeding in the Third World, even for HIV-positive women, as a first line of immune defense against the scores of health problems and diseases that ravage those populations. WHO recommends that all babies be breastfed for at least two years. But in a major reversal of its previous position, UNICEF earlier this year announced that it was beginning a new, "stepped-up drive to prevent HIV-AIDS in children," explaining that the agency would henceforth distribute AZT to pregnant women in developing countries and call for access to "safe alternatives" to breastfeeding. The disadvantages of formula are described in terms of cost, not health.
• My first thought was: I wonder what kind of cheese you could make with breast milk? Google is your friend: 1, 2.
• Or as pancake. Mmhh... oh, I don't know.
• My first thought was: I wonder if I can come up with a neanderthal one-liner to post here that would put all sophomoric male mofites into a giggle fit while simultaneously offending and disgusting every female mofite. Damn. I know it is out there, I just can't get my hands around it. Oh, wait! that was close!
• We used to have a breastmilk bank in NZ too, but it shut down. When I asked my midwife about donating, I was told I had to have decided when I was 20 weeks pregnant in order to have the necessary blood tests. No wonder it shut down.
• Fantastic initiative. I do so like the small good things people do.
• Ralph... how about "Thanks for the mammaries?"
• Do they keep it in big juggs? *crawls back under couch*
• *opens door, allows rampaging herd of evil dairy goats in to pee on Petebestworst
• We're surely not having petewurst for dinner again?!