13 Bio-Intimate Economies of Breastmilk ... 323exchange involving co-presence and physical proximity. Katherine
Carroll’s ( 2016 ) research with 19 American NICU mothers, for exam-
ple, shows how the sharing of bio-substances like donated breastmilk
from a third party can challenge women’s perceptions of the mother-
infant bond as exclusive, as well as ideas around kinship and relatedness.
Peer-Milk Sharing
Increasingly, due to breastfeeding campaigns around the world pro-
moting the message that ‘breast is best’, women who cannot or do not
breastfeed their own infants are turning to donor breastmilk as an infant
feeding option. This has been further facilitated by the rise of online
peer-milk sharing. To date, there are 170 Facebook groups facilitat-
ing peer-milk sharing in over 50 countries, with tens of thousands of
women worldwide using the Internet to source breastmilk (Gribble
2013 , 2014a). In New Zealand alone, it is estimated that there are
around 8000 women seeking donors and women donating breastmilk
online (Sunday: Milk Sisters 2016 ). Breast-sharing, in the form of cross-
nursing, is ordinarily a private act and is frequently arranged between
women who are known to one another. However, with the advent of
increasing Internet use and online forums, Facebook and websites,
breastmilk sharing has gone public. In 2010, peer-milk sharing received
impetus with the creation of the Facebook pages Eats on Feets (called
Piripoho Aotearoa in New Zealand) and Human Milk 4 Human Babies.
These sites provide a means to source breastmilk for women who are
unable to breastfeed, have an insufficient milk supply, have sick or pre-
mature infants, or are concerned about the use of infant formulas, and
in some cases, do not wish to breastfeed. The recent emergence of issues
such as melamine or bacterial contamination and threats of formula
milk tampering have likewise led to upsurges in the demand for human
milk.
As the benefits of breastmilk are well known, Internet-based milk
sharing and social media have enabled women who have milk to share
with women who require it. Some of these sites facilitate altruistic dona-
tion, whereas others offer milk for sale. The spread of peer-milk sharing