I was searching on CNN for a story about gender that might be interesting to post something about and I came across a video under the Breaking News section about online websites whose sole purpose is for women to find other women who have extra breast milk for sale. The video I found is a news anchor interviewing a doctor to see if there should be any health concerns with this kind of online trading.
Dr. Lori Feltman-Winter is being interviewed and she expresses her concerns about the fact that there is no screening process for this milk that is being traded over the internet. There is a nationally recognized milk bank called the Human Milk Banking Association of North America that has a pasteurizing process that the milk goes through before it is sold to mothers in need of it.
Lori explains that it is best for a mother to breast-feed up through the time period of 6 months after birth (possibly up to a year) and that society expects that all mothers are able to do this. Sometimes there are problems and the body just stops producing the natural milk, but mother's still want their children to be on breastmilk, so they have started to look into these other options. which could pose health problems for their children. Some of these websites have names like Milkin Mamas, which makes me think that it doesn't even sound like a good idea just looking at the name. I agree that there is a societal pressure for women to breast feed and those that don't want to are not regarded as the best mother they can be because formula isn't as good for a baby as breast milk is.
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