*Blink* *blink* *blink*

[patgund]

From BoingBoing:

Lodging for breastmilk swap on Berkeley Craigslist

"The ultimate Bay Area Craigslist post: free Berkeley room for nursing mom who'll share her breast-milk with seven people who've read a paper about the nutritional benefits thereof. They are all vegans. And they don't want to take breast milk away from an actual baby."

Comments

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

I think that broke my brain. They want a lactating woman whose baby has recently died?

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

More likely, who has already been weaned.

Every time I think it might be fun to live in the Bay area, something like this comes up and convinces me otherwise.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

They wanted whatever extra can be provided.

Still, *blink*

[tepintzin.livejournal.com]

I've sent the link via e-mail to electorprince. He'll laugh, which is good because he's been really depressed lately.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

There are less hippy-dippy parts of the bay area. I don't know that I could deal with actually living in Berkeley but the south bay is just my speed.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Oh no. They said they'll deal with one child, and want only whatever extra she can provide

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

.... how is this not taking it away from an actual baby? What do they think she's nursing, an English muffin?
And that's the least odd thing about it. :-D

[pbrim.livejournal.com]

It is quite possible for a woman to provide more milk than one baby wants or needs. I believe the record is from a woman working as a wet nurse in a foundling home, in the days before formula, who provided sole nutrition for seven infants for a period of a couple of months.

[phinnia.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I guess my family are all less-than-normal lactators then. :-)

[patgund.livejournal.com]

Little Bit's mom went over and above the call of duty. When she had Littest Bit, she was pumping and freezing the milk for me to bring down to his surrogate parents (insert joke about the baby looking like the milkman here).

The three months of pumping and freezing lasted Littest Bit for almost six months.

Little Bit, alas, was so small a preemie that she never latched properly and her mum ended up having to pump and use a bottle, because LB would tire before getting to the richer hindmilk. And had to be switched to formula at six months because her mum had to be placed back on high blood pressure meds.

[czina.livejournal.com]

Heheh - think they have room for a 3 year old, a husband, the 3 month old (who they'd be "stealing" from) and a house full of ... stuff?

Talk about an interesting barter system, though.

In re: stealing from the baby - the more the mother pumps/nurses, the more the body will produce, usually. So if she hasn't done any supplementing or started solid food for the baby, she could fairly easily up her production by pumping ... of course, that would have to be almost continually, to feed 7 people. I would probably demand one of the high end hospital-grade pumps out of the deal, myself.

I wonder at the theory that breastmilk is okay, but cow's milk is not. Heh, what do they think a cow's udder is?

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I believe the theory is that cows can't consent, probably supported by disapproval of factory farming conditions.

[duckflambe.livejournal.com]

Then maybe they should find a consenting cow to purchase. But I'm guessing it is cheaper to own a human than a cow in SF. ;)

Actually, I'm guessing they've read some half-baked pseudoscience report on why human breast milk is good for you (most likely an "anti-aging" thing).

[nolly.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure they've read something like that; I think it's mentioned in the full ad text. But I was addressing why human milk is OK when cow milk isn't, and there's plenty of reports showing health benefits of cow milk, goat milk, sheep milk, etc., so the pseudoscience is insufficient explanation for that.

[patgund.livejournal.com]

The same reason some vegans / vegetarians will eat the placenta (http://www.mothers35plus.co.uk/plac_rec2.htm)???

[nolly.livejournal.com]

As I said, for some it's about consent -- adult humans can, animals can't.

[omcintyre.livejournal.com]

Personally, I find this kinda.. weird. But, I when my daughter was nursing and I was pumping several times a day, I ended up donating quite a bit to Le Leche League for those moms who couldn't produce milk. At first I was a bit wierded out by the idea, but then I was okay with it.

The thing is, human milk is only really nutritious to babies, it foesn't provide the nutrition an adult needs.

And it also begs the question of how they want their milk delivered. I can't help but have the visual of 7 people standing in line to sit on the couch and be nursed. **shudders**

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

They're kinky hippies!

[patgund.livejournal.com]

I think I threw up a little in my mouth........ :-)

[omcintyre.livejournal.com]

Can't blame you. I would, too.