Breast Milk Becomes a Commodity, With Mothers Caught Up in Debate

20 MAR. [The New York Times] CITY OF INDUSTRY, Calif. — When Gretty Amaya took an unpaid maternity leave five months ago, she started what she calls a part-time job to help pay the bills. Ms. Amaya, who lives in Miami, has made more than $2,000 so far by pumping breast milk and selling what is left over after feeding her baby daughter. Frozen milk from Ms. Amaya — and from hundreds of other women throughout the country — is flown here to what resembles a pharmaceutical factory. Inside, it is concentrated into a high-protein product fed to extremely premature babies in neonatal intensive care units, at a cost of thousands of dollars a baby. Breast milk, that most ancient and fundamental of nourishments, is becoming an industrial commodity, and one of the newest frontiers of the biotechnology industry — even as concerns abound over this fast-growing business. The company that owns the factory, Prolacta Bioscience, has received $46 million in investments from life science venture capitalists... [continua a leggere]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="675"] Gretty Amaya with her children. She has made more than $2,000 over the last five months pumping her breast milk and selling what is left after feeding her baby daughter.[/caption]

Per approfondire “Risks of the unregulated market in human breast milk “