IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

The new wet nurse: Moms use Facebook to share breast milk

Facebook – it’s good for more than stalking ex-boyfriends!A new group called Eats on Feets is using the social network site to connect moms who can’t breastfeed or have low supply with mothers who have milk to spare.Sharing breast milk may sound radical, but it’s nothing new – wet nurses have been around for millennia.Eats on Feets (the name’s a play on Meals on Wheels) is basically a
Corbis stock / Today

Facebook – it’s good for more than stalking ex-boyfriends!

A new group called Eats on Feets is using the social network site to connect moms who can’t breastfeed or have low supply with mothers who have milk to spare.

Sharing breast milk may sound radical, but it’s nothing new – wet nurses have been around for millennia.

Eats on Feets (the name’s a play on Meals on Wheels) is basically a matchmaking site for moms who need donated milk and those whose cups overfloweth. The network went global earlier this month, and already has active chapters in all 50 states, as well as Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and other countries.

Mothers decide for themselves how they want to screen donors, whether through a questionnaire or by requiring a blood test for diseases that can be transmitted through breast milk. There’s a handy-dandy YouTube video from the University of California Berkeley teaching how to flash-pasteurize breast milk at home to kill viruses.

Have you ever given your breast milk to someone else's baby, or used donated breast milk for your own child? Would you?