294 F. Giles
parents can be prohibitive, amounting to upwards of US$100 per day
based on the quantity consumed by an average 6 months old (Smith
2013 ; Smith and Ingham 2005 ). Some insurance companies provide
rebates for medicinal use of milk for premature and sick infants, signi-
fying its legitimacy as a priced commodity within the health economy.
The work of feminist economists, since Marilyn Waring argued the case
in the 1980s, has proven its contribution to Gross Domestic Product
(Smith 2013 ).
Furthermore, donated milk provides a supply for research that sup-
ports the breastfeeding advocacy project through the advancement of
scientific knowledge about its benefits to babies, as well as stem cell
research, cancer prevention and treatment, and other medical applica-
tions to children and adults. All of these contribute to human milk’s
monetary value, despite the absence of recompense by most milk banks
to their donors.
Since 2014, Prolacta and Medolac have begun paying for their
milk, referring oddly to ‘paid donors’, and perhaps using this term to
acknowledge its token valuation. According to the Tiny Treasures
website operated by Prolacta, they pay US$1 per ‘qualified ounce...
Reimbursement is for time and effort’ (Prolacta Bioscience 2013 ),
implying that this calculation defies any realistic attempt at valuation.
This arrangement also reinforces a continuation of the ideology of the
gifting of milk rather than its fair exchange, while at the same time
drawing it into a market economy. Using screening methods including
DNA testing, blood tests, and post-collection bacterial testing of the
milk, this supply is then used as the raw material for fortifiers supplied
to premature wards for a considerable profit.^3
Since the revival of breastfeeding as a globally recognised pub-
lic health issue in the 1980s, the promotion of breastfeeding has also
amounted to the social marketing of human milk as a valued substance
endorsed by governments. Although social marketing does not usually
entail monetary exchange, it is predicated on the principle of exchang-
ing one (less desirable) behaviour for an alternative (more desirable)
behaviour, which is promoted by the state in order to enhance the well-
being of the population, and in turn, to reduce its health expenditure
(Hastings 2013 ). In addition to benefiting health or the environment,
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