While the Chinese policewoman who breastfed nine orphaned children after the devastating May 2008 earthquake is being hailed as a national hero, back in the United States, a recent online survey showed that 45 percent of American respondents find nursing another woman’s baby “disgusting” or “weird.” But cross-nursing, as it’s become known, continues to increase with the country’s growing number of breastfeeding mothers.
Breastfeeding a family member’s baby has different ramifications than feeding your baby breast milk from a donor you may have met only on the Internet. You’re more likely to know if a relative or close friend has engaged in risky sexual behavior, smokes or drinks alcohol regularly, uses illegal drugs, takes prescription medications that are incompatible with breastfeeding or has been exposed to a disease like hepatitis. Still, doctors and lactation specialists warn mothers of the potential dangers of sharing breast milk – it’s a body fluid, after all – from any unscreened source.
“It’s like having sex with someone,” cautions Amy Vickers, executive director of the Mother’s Milk Bank of North Texas. “You have to trust all the people that the donor has ever trusted.” The only 100-percent safe way to share milk, she says, is through a milk bank, where donors are screened and tested for infections, STDs, HIV and other potentially life-threatening ailments. The milk bank also establishes quality standards by pasteurizing all milk before it’s made available to mothers and their babies.
Courtney Adkins nursed her friend’s baby, whom she nannies, to better soothe the child while he was under her watch. “Tommy had a hard time with a bottle, so I called my friend at work and said ‘Is it ok if I nurse him?’” says the Metroplex mom of two. When the baby’s mother replied that she’d already considered asking, Adkins provided her with blood tests from her recent pregnancy, and the matter was settled. Adkins will soon be watching Tommy’s new younger siblings and anticipates nursing the youngest.
