SINGAPORE: First-time mum June Lee counts herself as one of the lucky ones: she is able to fully breastfeed her 13-month-old son Shane and still produce extra milk of up to 400ml a day.
Ms Lee said that she did not know what to do with the extra bags of milk she had pumped and stored in the freezer. But about six months ago, the 32-year-old business owner discovered the Facebook page "Human Milk 4 Human Babies - Singapore ", an online network that allows mothers to either ask for or donate breast milk.
AdvertisementAdvertisementShe decided that she would donate hers because she understood how it felt not to be able to give a child enough breast milk, she said.
“I started off as a low-supply mom and it was a real struggle to get the supply up,” Ms Lee said. “It’s actually very stressful and then you get pressures from people telling you that you have to feed with breast milk. It becomes very tiring and you are very pressurised, and you feel the mother’s guilt.”
Ms Lee said that to donate her milk, she uploads a post on the Facebook page that will have to be approved by an administrator. The post offers information such as how much milk she has to give away, her child's age, as well as her own diet and lifestyle habits.
Other mothers will send her a Facebook message saying how many packets they want and why they need it.
AdvertisementAdvertisementIf they agree to meet, the recipient family will visit her at home with an ice bag to make sure the milk collected does not thaw on the journey back. Ms Lee said she sometimes receives milk storage bags or cookies in return for her donation.
She said that she has used the platform to donate her milk about three or four times, and each time, the response has been “overwhelming”. Some mothers would even tell her to inform them the next time she has milk to give away because they missed their chance.
Ms Lee also uses other social media platforms and parenting forums to donate her breast milk, such as "Breastfeeding Support by Stork’s Nest Singapore" and ‘Breastfeeding Mothers’ Support Group Singapore’.
According to the administrators of these online breastfeeding support groups that facilitate informal milk sharing, parents are choosing to source for breastmilk online as there is greater awareness of the benefits of breastmilk.
Some mothers also cannot produce enough breastmilk, but as their infants refuse to drink formula milk, they have to supplement the child’s diet with donated breastmilk instead.
And occasionally, the high cost of formula milk is also mentioned as a reason, said Elaine Chow, a social media administrator of ‘Breastfeeding Support by Stork’s Nest Singapore’.
Khatim Hamidon, the current administrator of ‘Human Milk 4 Human Babies – Singapore’, thinks it becoming more popular among mothers to share their breastmilk informally.
The Singapore chapter, which started in 2010, now has over 5,000 ‘likes’ on Facebook. Ms Hamidon started managing the Facebook page in 2013, and said that in the past, she would approve about two to three posts a day, but now, she approves about four or five posts each day, and sometimes more.
Still, some mothers Channel NewsAsia reached out to said that they have concerns over the safety of such platforms. This is even among mothers who have used it before.
Mother of three Elaine Wong said had gotten breastmilk informally through one of the Facebook groups as she thought that feeding breastmilk to her second child Caleb, who has special needs, will help with his condition. Ms Wong said she was undergoing a stressful period after giving birth to Caleb and could not produce enough breastmilk on her own.
“I have concerns about hygiene, which is why when people message me and say, “I have how many packets of breastmilk”, I’ll talk to them first, and maybe go through their Facebook profile (to) have a sense of how they are as a person,” Ms Wong said.
30-year-old Elaine Low just gave birth to her son in January, and said that she would not take breastmilk from other mothers through unofficial milk sharing platforms.
“I think one of the concerns is actually whether the milk is safe to drink. What’s the handling of the milk like, how to keep the milk fresh, by the time it actually reaches my baby,” Ms Low said.
Doctors agree that sharing breastmilk informally poses a health risk. Like blood and saliva, breastmilk is a body fluid as well, and this means that diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis B and C, and Syphilis could spread to the infant if the milk is contaminated.
However, Dr Mythili Pandi, a doctor with Fullerton Health and the president of the Breastfeeding Mothers’ Support Group Singapore, said that such diseases are rare among mothers in Singapore, and those who donate their milk would not do it “out of spite” - they do it because the want the best for other infants.
“I don’t advocate it. I’m somewhat neutral about it,”’ Dr Pandi said when asked whether she was in favour of informal milk sharing platforms. “The World Health Organisation does state quite clearly that their stand is that breastfeeding’s best, so tops would be the mother’s own breastmilk to their own child. Number two would be donor breastmilk, understanding the risks. And the third would be supplementation by other milk.”
Dr Natalie Epton, a pediatrician and neonatologist with SBCC Baby and Child Clinic, said that she doesn’t recommend mothers to share their milk without proper guidelines at all as it puts children at risk.
And if their infant needs milk, there is an alternative – formula milk.
“The most important thing though, is that we do not demonise formula. We do like breastfeeding and breastmilk…however for many moms this is not possible,” Dr Epton said.
And rather than making breastmilk the “be all and end all of life”, Dr Epton said, formula milk is a safe alternative that provides the necessary nutrients young children need to grow.
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