NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- The number of women sharing and selling excess breast milk in the United States is on the rise, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
There are eight operating milk banks in the United States and Canada and four more in development, the Human Milk Banking Association of North America said. The facilities screen donors and the milk is pasteurized.
But increasingly appeals for, and offers of human milk are showing up on the Internet, the report said.
Some advocates of breast-feeding praise the commitment of parents to get their babies human milk, but some health experts say the practice can be risky. Many diseases, including HIV, hepatitis and syphilis, can be transmitted by human breast milk, milk that is improperly collected or stored can harbor dangerous bacteria.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has no specific stance on the practice, but the American Academy of Pediatrics and the breast-feeding-advocacy group La Leche League International don't recommend it.
