We pay for formula, why can't we pay for breast milk?
If I could just go to the store and buy it off the shelf, one hundred per cent I would do that
When I did my estimates of the value of human milk in Australia the figure I’ve used is $100 a litre
Once you lose that altruism and the motivation is money, then we're doing it for the wrong reasons
I've had milk from many different mothers and they all taste different, I could work out a mothers diet from what I tasted
Is breast milk the most valuable human fluid on the planet?
We meet the people going to the ends of the earth to get hold of it and the adults and infants who share the love for the breast medicine
Oh my goodness, that's amazing
Maybe not all, how much do you need?
I'll take everything you can give me, my son drinks a lot
It’s almost like a black market
You’re hunting individuals down to see if they’ve got , you know, what you need
I'm Julie, I'm a stay at home mum
I’ve got seven children
I was on hormone therapy during my pregnancies and so my milk didn’t come in sadly
The furthest I’ve travelled to get donor milk is 3 hours: when ya down to your last bottle you’ll go anywhere
If you cannot breastfeed you child then what can be better than giving that child human breast milk from another human woman?
In the past five years, online milk sharing groups have boomed
Today, thousands of mums like Julie hook up and trade breast milk
I wouldn’t want to see my breast milk going to waste
I discovered quite early on after having Margo that I had an excess supply and I decided to start pumping
Thinking, you know, that I could help somebody out
I’ve had people say it’s strange because it’s sharing bodily fluids and there’s nothing wrong with formula
Before formula was around, this was the normal thing
But when it comes to sharing bodily fluids, there are risks involved
Because breast milk has the capacity to carry blood borne pathogens and diseases
And if the mum is not upfront about drug and alcohol use, that too can be passed on in her milk
I don’t see a junkie sitting there expressing breast milk for half an hour to give it away for free
It’s such a small risk for such a huge health benefit for the baby
If you can’t breastfeed unless you can make your way into this little niche market of donated breastmilk
There's no other option than formula
But what if there was another option? We already have sperm banks and blood banks, what if there were milk banks?
Australia currently has five milk banks, all of which are attached to hospitals to exclusively supply sick and preterm babies
This is our level two neonatal intensive care unit
My name's Dr Ben Hartmann, I am a research scientist and I manage our donor human milk bank here at King Eddy Memorial Hospital
It's one of the biggest neo natal units in the southern hemisphere we treat a lot of patients
And we are also able to provide the donor milk banking service to the entire state from the one site
All the milk stored is frozen at minus 20
This is probably close to about 100, 120 litres of milk that we will use over the next 3 months for patients in the nursery
Babies born prematurely are born with an immature digestive system and immature immume system
Any infection is something that we really want to avoid and breastmilk is one way we can reduce the risk of those infections
We reduce the risk of a disease called necrotising enterocolitis, it's something we only see in preterm babies
For every dollar we spend on donor milk, we're returning two to four dollars to the public health system
Where this specialised milk bank helps the most fragile, it wasn't long ago that milk banks were right across Australia
But with the discovery of HIV, that came to an abrupt halt
Overnight
Overnight milk banking stopped
Maria Ryan worked as a midwife for 38 years, with 19 of those years as a lactation consultant
Milk banking was established in Australia up until 1979 when HIV became an issue
There was a federal government decree that milk banking in hospitals was to stop
Three weeks after this situation we had a baby that developed an infection and that ultimately meant that this baby passed away
I thought if you'd been born a month ago you'd still be here today
Countries around the world realised that if we pasteurised the milk we destroy all the viruses, we can continue with milk banking
So where Australia pulled the pin on milk banking, Brazil stepped it up
They are now the undisputed kings of human breast milk
Of the 292 milk banks across the globe, 220 of them are in Brazil
Around 30 years ago Brazil devised a system to educate mothers and assist them in breastfeeding their babies for longer
The result? A whopping 73 per cent decrease in infant mortality
With around 150,000 donors the milkbank initiative has created national acceptance and encouragement for breastfeeding women
It means that 39 per cent of of Brazilian babies are being exclusively breast fed until 6 months of age
Wherein Australia, it's closer to 16 per cent
Healthy nutrition is the cornerstone of health prevention in our public health system
And families know that healthy food is breast milk
Marea Ryan knows the beauty of breast milk, from this humble shopfront she operates the only charity run milk bank in Australia
Milk banks fill the gap for where mother's own milk is not available.
We don't pay mums for donations, I believe there is a beauty in our culture to give to support others in need
So once we receive the milk at the bank, we defrost, we test, we pasteurise, then we distribute it to those babies in need
But Marea only has the capacity to supply hospitals and sick babies and demand is outstripping supply
Leaving many mums struggling to breastfeed, high and dry
There are many mothers that we can't provide for
I believe we need a publicly funded national network of milk banks as a collective for us to provide for families in Australia
Infact, that was the government's own recommendation back in 2007
They said "milk banks would give babies a healthier start to life, reduce healthcare costs and provide real support for mothers who are unable to provide their baby with breastmilk"
It’s in the government’s best interest to help mothers breast feed successfully because it saves the health system millions
And in the case of big countries like America, billions
Julie Smith is Australia's expert when it comes to the economics of breastfeeding and milk banks
You hear a lot of people saying breastfeeding’s free well actually it’s not but it’s highly valuable
If we put a value on mother’s milk public policy will be better oriented to help mother’s breast feed
At the moment they give it very little priority
When I did my estimates of the value of human milk in Australia... the figure I’ve used is $100 a litre
10 years time there will definitely be trade around the world in human milk
People are willing to pay for it and it's worth paying for
Whilst a dollar value on breast milk seems like a foreign concept, the commercialisation of breast milk is already a reality in the USA
One American company, Ambrosia Labs, is buying milk directly from Cambodian women at a cost of around $45 per litre
Then they ship that milk to America and sell it for a hefty $150 per litre - that's over 200x the price of cow's milk
If I could just go to the store and buy it off the shelf, 100 per cent I would do that
And some say it's not just babies that can benefit from the components withing breast milk
I’ve been drinking breast milk since December 2011, so nearly five years
I always felt breast milk was for more than the babies
My name is Jenny Jones and I’m a midwife and lactation consultant
As a lactation consultant you have to understand the biochemistry of everything about breast milk at a deep level
Jenny was diagnosed with multiple myaloma cancer in 2011
She started consuming breast milk to boost her immune system whilst undergoing a bone marrow transplant
I found I got through the transplant without infections
I felt absolutely sure that it was going to be my lifeline and it has turned out to be so
I have the milk that has been declined by milk banks and there is a very strict criteria that milk banks have to follow
An adult immunity can cope with things that babies can't
So this is the supply I have at the moment
Yes, I get excited when I see a full freezer of milk - amazing what excites you
I have had milk from many different mothers and they all taste different
I can definitely tell if a mother is having an excessive amount of garlic
And I'd say to Bob, there's a lot of garlic in this one ... because it's so vital to me I'm just grateful to the mothers
I just drink it
Cheers and thank you to the mother
There's plenty of cream in this milk, so she’s on a good amount of good fat in her diet
Any garlic? No, it's just beautiful mik
Very silky smooth
I feel my general health is better, I just feel like I have more stamina and my body is stronger and my bones are strong
Why shouldn’t adults have it if it is really going to be helping them and the milk is going to be discarded anyway?
We need the research and while there's no research there's going to be no support from the medical profession, and I can understand that
Where Jenny has a steady supply, Julie doesn't have enough
Once my little one was almost 8 and a half months old I struggled to find any more donor milk and I had to put him back on to formula
It’s perceived as being unnatural to give a child milk from another women’s breast, which is the furthest thing from the truth
It's the most natural thing if you cannot breastfeed your child
We've had a national discussion on breast milk and breast milk banks, what we need now is action
We've gotta have this understanding there's a wider production of things that are valuable
That are not necessarily all bought and sold
Success for us is about no providing donor milk and having a mum successfully breast feed
That's our measure of success, to do ourselves out of a job