I did a quick Google search to see if Prolacta Bioscience was up to its usual shenanigans again. Apparently, it is. In addition to soliciting breast milk donations directly on prolacta.com through milkbanking.net, creating the National Milk Bank to funnel all the milk donated there into Prolacta, and hijacking the International Breast Milk Project so that 75% of all donations to the IBMP go to Prolacta, they’ve got yet another scheme. They “partner up” with a birth center or lactation center so that breast milk donors are duped into trusting Prolacta.

The donated milk gets processed as human milk fortifier (a product that has not been proven safe yet; published medical journals regarding its safety either do not exist or are very obscure) and the recipient gets charged $184.83/ounce.

Here are some examples of organizations that sell their their milk to Prolacta, same as the National Milk Bank and International Breast Milk Project do:

• Milkin’ Mamas Breast Milk Bank
• The Mother’s Touch Lactation Consulting
• The Birth Connection Milk Bank (alternative site)
• The Family Birth Center
• Southcoast Midwifery and Women’s Healthcare
• Miami Maternity Center

If you donate to any of the above places, to milkbanking.net or the National Milk Bank, know that your all your milk will go to Prolacta Bioscience. Prolacta will then process and sell the milk for $184.83/ounce. If you donate to the International Breast Milk Project, 75% of your donated breast milk will stay in the United States to be sold for $184.83/ounce.

Edited (7/26/2007): Please read or listen to this public radio report on Prolacta that confirms much of what I’ve already written.

If you want to donate to someplace where your milk will actually help a baby (and not a for-profit corporation), consider donating to a HMBANA bank. They have no affiliation with Prolacta Bioscience, and can only charge recipients what it costs to process the milk, which is usually around $3.50/ounce.

If you’d like to donate your breast milk directly to a baby in need, join MilkShare. Milkshare is a group created by Kelley Faulkner in 2004 to hook up women with surplus breast milk with women who would like donated breast milk for their babies. It is a low-cost alternative to milk banks for the recipients, as they only have to pay for shipping for the milk. For donors, it can be very satisfying to be able to know exactly who the recipients of their milk are.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Milk Banks, Breastfeeding, Lactation, National Milk Bank, For-Profit, Prolacta, Non-Profit, International Breast Milk Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.