What If There Was No Formula?

[SnuggleMum]

That's fine if it was me that had the problem but it was Niamh. As the saying goes you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

If most women with babies aged 0-1 were lactating, donor milk for cup/bottle feeding would be a lot easier to come by. There would probably be more milk banks as well as more informal milk sharing.

 

[lozzy21]

Back I'm the day if they couldent afford a wet-nurse people gave animal milks instead and if they couldent afford that they mixed flour and even chalk with water to feed to the baby. I'm glad of the alternatives we have now.

 

[tommyg]

That would only work if you had friends and family with baby's at that time. I had none, if I did and they could express I'd have gave her that.

Your biggest problem would have been LO's ability to latch rather than the lack of milk.

I am sure I read somewhere that after a woman has stopped bfing she could start lactating again if her nipples are stimulated so in the event of a mother not being able to feed her baby her mother, babies gran could do it.

As somebody else pointed out there would be more lactating mothers too, no contraception and mothers would lactate for longer periods of time.

 

[lozzy21]

Have you seen how much it costs to buy BM? I know it's worth it's weight in gold but it is more than I can afford. As for informal milk sharing I wouldent accept milk from any one other than a close family member that hasent been screened first which again isent cheep.

 

[SnuggleMum]

Have you seen how much it costs to buy BM? I know it's worth it's weight in gold but it is more than I can afford. As for informal milk sharing I wouldent accept milk from any one other than a close family member that hasent been screened first which again isent cheep.

Would it cost so much if there were a lot more if it?

I'm sure I'm reading it wrong, but if there were no formula and milk bank milk was prohibitively expensive, you still would use unscreened milk?

I imagine like with specialist expensive formulas being on prescription now, donor milk would be prescribed if it was the only option.

 

[lozzy21]

Yes I think it would cost as much. If there was no formula then people would have no other choice but to buy it and the sellers would know that so could charge what they liked.

 

[SnuggleMum]

Would be interesting to see. Most women happily donate for free, wonder what bumps the cost up so much. Perhaps there would be more efficiency (local milk banks, less transport costs) if there were more demand. There aren't many banks at the moment. Would there be involvement from companies working in a similar way to formula companies, with huge mark ups, or would it remain more of a woman run, baby centred, altruistic thing?

 

[tommyg]

Do you honestly think if you had no money and couldn't afford screened BM you would refuse to let your mother or friend feed your baby?

 

[lozzy21]

Do you honestly think if you had no money and couldn't afford screened BM you would refuse to let your mother or friend feed your baby?

If you had read my post propperly you would see that I said I would only let a close family member donate milk that wasent screened but if we are in a time with no formula or contraception then it's going to take a bloody long time to hand express enough milk to feed my LO for a day since it was her that wouldent latch rather than me not producing milk.

 

[lozzy21]

Would be interesting to see. Most women happily donate for free, wonder what bumps the cost up so much. Perhaps there would be more efficiency (local milk banks, less transport costs) if there were more demand. There aren't many banks at the moment. Would there be involvement from companies working in a similar way to formula companies, with huge mark ups, or would it remain more of a woman run, baby centred, altruistic thing?

I think it would end up with big company's. If it became widespread then the government would put rules and laws into place making screening compulsory and making mothers register as a donor, all of which will have running costs that they will recover from the cost of the milk.

 

[TheNewMrs]

Thinking of this logically, when I had T, 4 friends were due around the same time. I also just counted 21 people i know with LO's under 3. Realisticly if formula didn't exist women would bf till much older than the western world deems "normal" these days. I'm sure between all of them my baby would get fed. If women lactated longer there'd be more milk! Simple. I also can't see any of those women charging me to feed my baby if I took care of their duties while they fed my baby. Or donated milk.

I think in an ideal world it's very doable....

 

[lozzy21]

If you have enough people round you then it would be easy but it's not an ideal world. I have one family member with a child under 3 but she lives hundreds of miles away. My siblings are still in school as are most of my cousins and my friends that are local don't have children.

 

[RaspberryK]

Thinking of this logically, when I had T, 4 friends were due around the same time. I also just counted 21 people i know with LO's under 3. Realisticly if formula didn't exist women would bf till much older than the western world deems "normal" these days. I'm sure between all of them my baby would get fed. If women lactated longer there'd be more milk! Simple. I also can't see any of those women charging me to feed my baby if I took care of their duties while they fed my baby. Or donated milk.

I think in an ideal world it's very doable....

This is how is would work in an ideal world and how it would work in a more natural environment. Would be great if someone would come do my washing up while I fed the babies! lol

x

 

[SnuggleMum]

In an emergency, you could be put in touch with hundreds of local women, most of who would help. 5,000 births per year at my hospital, I imagine most would donate milk rather than let a baby suffer.

 

[lozzy21]

In an emergency, you could be put in touch with hundreds of local women, most of who would help. 5,000 births per year at my hospital, I imagine most would donate milk rather than let a baby suffer.

Not so sure in my town, most of them would punch you just for speeking to them

 

[TheNewMrs]

Thinking of this logically, when I had T, 4 friends were due around the same time. I also just counted 21 people i know with LO's under 3. Realisticly if formula didn't exist women would bf till much older than the western world deems "normal" these days. I'm sure between all of them my baby would get fed. If women lactated longer there'd be more milk! Simple. I also can't see any of those women charging me to feed my baby if I took care of their duties while they fed my baby. Or donated milk.

I think in an ideal world it's very doable....

This is how is would work in an ideal world and how it would work in a more natural environment. Would be great if someone would come do my washing up while I fed the babies! lol

x

Same!! I'll chill on the sofa on boobie duty while baby momma comes and cleans my house!!! That really would be lovely....

 

[TigerLady]

I donated quite a lot of milk to my friend for her baby -- at least 5 oz per day for nearly a year. Clearly not enough to feed her entirely BM, but enough to help her out. I was tandem nursing and working full time so 5 oz was the best I could do. I would never have dreamed of charging her for it.

As for the screening thing, I simply told her -- honestly -- what meds I take and anything else I did. Thankfully, because she was a close friends, she knew I was being honest and trusted me. But I could see being leary about accepting donated milk from a stranger who wasn't screened. I'd probably accept it if nothing else was available, but I'd only use it as a last resort.

 

[CatandKitten]

I just read an interesting book ( The Politics of Breastfeeding) and unfortunately many wet nurses were forced to neglect their own babies for the chance at the position. Partially due to geography because they lived with the employer and partually due to faulty thinking that it would be hard to produce enough milk for both their baby and the employers. These wet nurses were hired due to nobilities desire for return of fertility needed for large families rather than not being able to produce enough milk. Im glad we have formula available so we dont have women forced to make that choice anymore.

 

[HellBunny]

If there was no formula my children probably wouldn't have their mum.

 

[Aidan's Mummy]

If there was no formula my children probably wouldn't have their mum.

x