Sharing breast milk to feed babies is a practice dating back millennia, and the Internet has facilitated the process creating some surprising exchanges.
According to a new study from the University of Central Florida, sharing breast milk is thriving today and in Central Florida it appears high income, highly educated white women are some of the people to most often use the Internet to facilitate the exchange.
Another surprise out of the study: Breast milk isn 麻豆精品 S檛 just being exchanged in containers.
麻豆精品 S淚 was surprised by the high prevalence of overlap, where women who were donors were also recipients 麻豆精品 S� for their babies, said Beatriz Reyes-Foster a sociocultural anthropologist at UCF and one of the authors of the study, which recently appeared in the journal Breastfeeding Medicine. 麻豆精品 S淎nd many of them aren 麻豆精品 S檛 exchanging milk in containers, they 麻豆精品 S檙e cross-nursing. 麻豆精品 S�
Cross-nursing (directly breastfeeding someone else 麻豆精品 S檚 baby, often incorrectly referred to as wet-nursing, a professional service) seems to be a modern-day reality as well.
The popularity of breast milk may be linked to the growing number of research articles that indicate that . The children tend to be more resistant to disease early in life and less likely to contract several diseases later in life, including juvenile diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and cancer before age 15. For women who can 麻豆精品 S檛 produce their own milk, sharing is an alternative.
And while there has been some concern raised in the medical community that the Internet is a dangerous way to exchange milk among strangers with little or no way to guarantee the quality or safety of the milk being exchanged, the UCF study didn 麻豆精品 S檛 find the exchange among strangers something that routinely happens in Central Florida. They also found that the buying and selling of milk was rare.
麻豆精品 S淭he idea that women are and having it shipped through the mail was not supported by our study, 麻豆精品 S� said Shannon K. Carter, assistant professor of sociology and co-author on the study. 麻豆精品 S淭he medical community seems to have a perception that women are buying or obtaining breast milk from anyone who will provide it and that they can find on the Internet. We found milk sharing to be a much more complex process, involving friends, friends of friends, and hybrid online/offline communities. 麻豆精品 S�
The UCF team, which also included assistant professor of sociology Melanie Sberna Hinojosa, circulated surveys through Facebook to 18 Central Florida parenting communities, the and web pages, personal web pages, and the web pages of 20 professional contacts. The study is based on the responses and analysis from 392 participants.
Most of the participants in the survey were college educated with 64 percent having earned a bachelor 麻豆精品 S檚 degree or higher. About 47 percent of participants had household incomes above $70,000 and most women said they were unemployed. The majority of women (70 percent) had one or two children and all but one respondent had been sharing breast milk since 2010.
Alison Serra, of Orange City, knew she wanted to breastfeed her daughter because of all the benefits, but her plans to do it on her own didn 麻豆精品 S檛 work out.
麻豆精品 S淲hen I struggled to breastfeed my daughter myself, I knew that I had to pursue the next best option, 麻豆精品 S� said the former substitute teacher. 麻豆精品 S淢ilk sharing eased the pain of not breastfeeding my daughter for as long as I had hoped. I just had to seek out that which I knew was best for my baby. 麻豆精品 S�
Serra, who participated in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 study, was able to give her daughter Alaina breast milk from 2012 to 2014 thanks to an exchange network. Alaina is now three-years-old and Serra is expecting her second child. She said if needed, she would again turn to milk sharing.
麻豆精品 S淚t was an incredibly positive experience, 麻豆精品 S� she said. 麻豆精品 S淭he women who shared milk with my daughter were more than happy to do so and I am so grateful for each of them. This is the power of community and technology and love. 麻豆精品 S�
As for the safety concerns, Serra said research is important.
麻豆精品 S淚 support milk sharing communities, 麻豆精品 S� she said. 麻豆精品 S淚 think research should focus on the safety of the practice, the unknown mechanisms at work in breast milk, and teaching safe handling and storage and donor screening. 麻豆精品 S�