Mothers are using community forums¹, including Facebook, to make some quick cash out of their extra milk.

 

Buying breast milk is tempting² to new parents struggling to express their own, as it provides babies with better protection against illnesses and allergies³ compared to formula.

 

Websites such as onlythebreast.com appear to answer this need, saying: 'Our discrete⁴（不连续的） breastfeeding breast milk classified system makes it possible to sell or buy breast milk in a clean, private way.'

 

Donor⁵ mothers list their milk under the age of their baby and if they can provide fresh milk on demand. A search around the site reveals women from Essex to Newcastle are offering it either fresh or frozen for around £1 per fluid ounce, while $2 per ounce is the standard rate in the US. The site has 14,000 members.

 

The website's founder⁶ Glenn Snow said he set it up after his wife Chelly said she wanted to sell her extra milk to give her some spending money as a stay-at-home mother.

 

Mothers can donate and receive breast milk for free via milk banks. These centres store breast milk for babies whose mothers can't breastfeed. However, they give priority to babies who are sick.

 

The banks collect expressed milk from pre-screened mothers who have a plentiful⁷ supply and a baby under six-months old. It is then pasteurised（巴斯德消毒法） before it is offered to nearby hospitals.

 

But today doctors in Germany warned new parents against privately⁸ obtaining their baby's food through social networks such as Facebook.

 

'Donors⁹ can be taking medicines or drugs, have infectious illnesses like AIDS or Hepatitis,' Wolfram Hartmann, president of the Professional Association of Pediatricians, said.

 

'Nobody can check whether the unknown mother's milk is harmless for the particular child' he warned, adding that the milk's quality could also be affected¹⁰ during its transportation.

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