JUPITER, Fla. – The Internet is an avenue to purchase almost anything online, and now the spectrum is growing.
Everything from cars and clothes to furniture and food has been bought and sold online. Now even breast milk is for sale.
Heidi Knight nurses both of her daughters and still has more to give. The stay-at-home mom decided she wanted to help others and make a little extra cash for her kids on the side.
Knight started cyber-nursing, selling her breast milk online.
"The idea first came about because I have a friend who had big hopes for all three of her babies to be able to breast-feed them," Knight said. "But she wasn't able to because she had a breast reduction and didn't realize that could take your ability away from producing milk."
Breast milk is in high demand and mothers often struggle to produce it.
"If you really think about it, sometimes it is kind of bizarre to be sharing something that comes from your own body with somebody that you're not related to or that you really don't know that well," Knight said.
There are dozens of websites that promote buying, selling and donating breast milk. But not only does it seem bizarre to take in a stranger's milk, it might not even be safe.
Dr. Randy Fink from the Miami Center of Excellence for OBGYN warned of the dangers this type of transaction could bring.
"In this era of infectious disease concerns about hepatitis, HIV and who knows what other things we haven't even learned about, many people would say, 'Wow, you want me to put what inside my baby? Um, that comes from someone else?'" Fink said.
Yet Fink went on to say that breast-feeding offers the best nutritional option for babies.
"It's a body fluid," Fink said. "At the end of the day, it's really a gift we can give to our kids to breast-feed, and so even if a mom can only do it for a week or two weeks, it's better than nothing."
While Fink did not endorse buying breast milk online, if a person decides to make the purchase, he recommends testing potential donors for disease.
That's something Knight said that she is willing to do.
"The way I'm able to freeze my milk, I don't have to transfer the milk into a freezer bag either. It's all direct," Knight said. "So I feel like there's less possibility of germs getting into that milk."
Knight tried selling her milk on Craigslist, but has now switched to another website dedicated solely to buying and selling breast milk.
She only wants her supply to go to mothers with dried-up hope.
"It's been done for centuries, you know; they had wet nurses," Knight said.
The mother of two hasn't produced much profit yet, but hopes that sharing something so personal with a stranger develops a familiar connection in the end.
Anyone interested in buying breast milk from Knight can do so by clicking here.
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