The business with breast milk
© Getty ImagesThey call themselves "milkmaid", "chubby milking machine" or "Yummy Mommy". And they praise their goods like the market criers. On websites full of proud and milk-swollen breasts: "Healthy Fatty Milk," writes Allee, 26, of Iowa on the Onlythebreast.com website, the leading private exchange for international breast milk trading. The German organic mum "Milky", 21, non-smoker from Worms, has in an ad on the net half a liter of "ecologically tapped milk - with a lot of cream on top" on offer. And also Allees and Milky's competitors praise their own-made product like a Philadelphia cheesecake: "creamy and creamy", "heavenly sweet", "makes your baby full and happy". As a proof of quality is preferred to keep your own Wonneproppen in the camera.
Allee is lovingly called "the dairy cow" by her family. She sold about 500 liters of excess milk in almost ten months. She sends her breast milk in special freezer bags, embedded in dry ice, via Fedex all over the world. From milk money - up to 3000 euros a month - the family has done a lot, what would not have been otherwise. A bigger car with room for the three kids for example. "We live on my husband's income while I stay at home and quiet," she says. "Why should not I make a job of it if there is demand."
Full-time nurses are barely there today
The breast milk business is not new, nurse is one of the oldest professions of humanity. Mothers have always fed other women's children, and it was still common in the 19th century for wealthy ladies to have a nurse after the birth of their child. Today, the World Health Organization WHO recommends that mothers breastfeed their children for at least six months. Science agrees: Breastmilk is the best baby can get. And in the Chinese upper class, it is now again considered chic, next to an aupair from Europe, to get a local girl from the country, which gives good and cheap milk and relieves the hostess.
Nevertheless, there are hardly any full-time nurses in the world. The international business is booming in the network. Never before has breast milk been so eagerly sold, never has its market value been so high. Onlythebreast.com has over 6000 members registered. On average, they charge six euros for 100 milliliters, and a six-month-old baby can drink ten times a day. In addition there are the transport costs. Also they are gladly taken over by many buyers. Here, the "liquid gold", as the white goods in the US is called, a delicate commodity.
In Germany, too, the demand for breast milk is high. And so it was only a matter of time before the first exchange page was launched. Since January 2014, mothers can offer their own milk in the breast milk exchange, buy or give away others. The founder, Tanja Müller, works together with the Institute for Milk Examination (IfM) - but a control of milk is not mandatory.
Breastmilk is not sterile, if handled improperly, it can lead to dangerous germ contamination
"I would not feed my child with untreated milk from a stranger," says Corinna Gebauer, medical director of the largest German women's milk bank at the University Hospital Leipzig. "Breastmilk is not sterile, it can lead to dangerous germ contamination in case of improper handling." And no one knows if the alleged "organic mum" is taking drugs, or smoking, drinking or even having contagious diseases. Unlike other body fluids, however, breast milk is considered a food product almost everywhere in the world. That's why their sale is legal in Germany. Large trading platforms such as eBay exclude the business anyway. For the exchange flourishes in Internet forums and in the market of local classifieds in the network.
Chelly Snow, co-founder of the US site Onlythebreast.com, had the "brainwave" after the birth of her first daughter Zoa: On the internet, she read all about the undeniable advantages of breastfeeding and at the same time many desperate posts: "Breastmilk urgently sought". Snow worked through the suffering stories of the mothers who could not breastfeed. And through the discussions of the nursing women who poured their pumped-down reserves into the bath because they did not know where to put the excess. Snow saw potential suppliers and customers who could not come together. The beginning of a wonderful business relationship.
There were still no known cases of illness and no scandal
Together with her husband Glenn, she started the site, which is financed by advertisements.Although tips are given as sterile as possible pumped and frozen for transport, which goes on request to overseas, but the responsibility and self-control is left alone breastfeeding mothers. And so - what should be procured as a miracle cure for the baby - at risk. Chelly Snow knows that mother's milk can transmit HIV. And she knows that even a not quite fresh towel can cause the number of bacterial germs in the milk supply to explode when pumped out.
Like the buyers on her side, she hopes that all shop assistants will do their job for the benefit of foreign children. That they would never harm a baby. That all the self-made dairy traders would not even get the idea to stretch their goods with water, cow's milk, milk powder or whatever. The shoppers suppress all warnings from health organizations and firmly believe in the goodness of mother's milk - and the associated donor. They just hope nothing happens. There were still no known cases of illness and no scandal.
At the official milk banks in the USA, where the same medical care is used as with blood donation, the Internet competition is already noticeable. Almost all institutions that mainly supply hospitals complain about milk bottlenecks. This is tragic because breast milk can save premature life.
These babies are in mortal danger for weeks, whatever is medically feasible. Breast milk works miracles, which can not yet be explained scientifically, and creates with special growth factors, proteins and sugar compounds, which no substitute food can: It matures the highly sensitive intestinal tract of the tiny and seals it against life-threatening germs.
But the mothers of these children can not breastfeed yet. Usually it takes even after a birth at the calculated date a few days, until the milk comes and it goes with breastfeeding - but this the child has to suck first strong. Exactly what a premature baby usually can not do.
In Germany, too, reliance is placed on dairy banks, whose stocks have not yet been affected by online trade. You are a legacy from GDR times. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the last women's milk collection site closed in 1972, when artificial baby food was regarded as a progressive alternative. One more recently opened at the Klinikum Großhadern in Munich, the first start-up in the West for 100 years, two more are planned.
There are currently eleven in Germany, the largest milk bank is located in Leipzig. It uses more than half of the donor milk for German hospitals with up to 1,800 liters per year. The donors are examined and their milk is tested. It is ensured that the woman breastfeeds herself, that her baby is full and that she has enough milk left over. It is usually only possible to donate in the first six months after birth, because breast milk is tailored to the needs of the child, depending on the month of life. The blood is being tested for hepatitis B and C, HIV and syphilis. The liver values are tested. And when women carry certain viruses, such as CMV, the milk is pasteurized, that is, heated to exactly 62.5 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. "But because pasteurization breaks down a large part of the most important ingredients, we try to make the milk as raw as possible," explains Corinna Gebauer. Frozen permanently at minus 20 degrees, the raw milk is stored for up to half a year. If you want to give it fresh, it must be done in hospital within 72 hours. "That's something very valuable," says Gebauer. "Only 20 to 30 percent of milk donations have this quality."
In Germany only premature babies receive tested milk in the clinics
On average, the time-consuming examinations and the high-end workmanship ensure safety, but also that the tested Leipzig women's milk costs about 42 euros per liter. It is passed on to the nursing intensive care units without any profit. The donors are paid 6.82 euros per liter - a tenth of what they could earn on the online market. "And many even give this amount back to the milk bank," says Gebauer. "You do not want to make a profit, but donate from the heart." Almost all the donors in Leipzig are mothers of children who have themselves been rescued by the milk banks. "Once a week our drivers pick up the milk from the donors," explains Gebauer. She regrets that it is not collected more often, but above all that the courier service can only cover the city. Women from the surrounding area have to bring their own milk. But many are just missing the time with baby. "In Brazil, the fire brigade takes the milk with them, so the emergency services are specially trained - in Calabria, that's what the police do - and it's free."
In Germany, the hard-won breast milk is reserved for premature babies in the clinics alone. And their need is far from covered. There is not a single droplet of it against Bares: "I can only say to the mothers who come to us from outside how sorry I am that I can not help," says Corinna Gebauer."But we can not afford this help, and we can not make an exception."
And so many desperate mothers are back on the net in the net, landing on local classifieds portals such as Quoka.de, where they should pay up to 50 euros for 150 milliliters of untreated milk. And soon realize that most offers are not intended for babies. "Urgently searched" is also the most frequent subject line here. But most seekers are adults who want to "try it out" for themselves. Or experiment. "In the kitchen", for example, as a male prospect writes. Finally, the mother's milk ice cream called "Baby Gaga" a London ice cream parlor was despite a price of 16.50 euros per serving the absolute hit - until the health authority has banned the "pure natural product". Less hypocritical it goes in the Internet forum Stillbeziehungen.tk. There too, there is a lively trade in breast milk. The motivation, however, is quite openly sexual: "Here you can set advertisements with a financial background, Condition: Erotic lactation as a basis is a must!"
Ice cream made from mother's milk - that's where the fun stops with me.
Corinna Gebauer is glad that the Leipzig women's milk bank is spared from such machinations. "Fortunately, nobody is going to introduce us, and that requires anonymity on the net," she says. "Breast milk is a food for newborns." I may still have understanding for adults who want to consume small amounts of breast milk as an individual healing attempt after a serious intestinal disease or chemotherapy, but even with ice cream stops with me the fun. How many premature babies would have been fed up with it. "
Our author
Angela Wittmann would not have given her two children the milk of a stranger. As editorial director of ChroniquesDuVasteMonde MOM, she is increasingly receiving inquiries about where breast milk can be obtained in Germany. On Facebook, there are groups that are not about business, but about donations on a private basis.
