Breast milk is increasingly becoming a sought-after commodity amongst Australian mothers, with some willing to drive between cities and even states to source milk for their newborns.
Thousands of women are connecting through online networks, including Facebook, to source fresh milk in their local areas, and while many are willingly offering it up, they’re struggling to keep up with demand.
Mother-of-three Kate Holmdahl lives in the NSW Blue Mountains and is currently nursing her youngest child, a nine-day-old baby girl.
After hearing about one of the popular state-based Facebook groups through word of mouth, the 33-year-old decided to give it a go.
“I had lots and lots of milk, I had more milk than I needed for my one baby,” she told Mamamia.
“I’m a big advocate for breast feeding and babies having human milk. Instead of it going to waste I thought I’d give it to a baby that might need it.”
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It should also be noted that the breastmilk in the milk bank at The Mercy Hospital is only used for babies who are in the Special Care Nursery there, it's not something that you can rock up and buy from them. That is of course a wonderful thing, and has no doubt prevented the death of a number of babies in the NICU or SCN there from necrotising enterocolitis (an extremely serious bowel infection that is very often fatal and occurs almost exclusively in formula fed premature babies).