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new trend in china, outsourced breast feeding services

A

akubi

Diamond Member
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060628/od_nm/china_wetnurse1_dc

do you have a problem with women selling their breast milk?

"Professional" wet nurse feeds moral outrage

Wed Jun 28, 9:30 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - The case of a poor mother from the Chinese countryside hired to breastfeed an affluent city-dweller's baby has stoked controversy over the ethics of the ancient practice of wet nursing.

Professional wet nurses have appeared in major cities across China, the Beijing News reported Wednesday, fueled by rising incomes and a demand for healthy milk.

China has been dogged by a number of health scares regarding bogus baby milk formula. In 2004, at least 13 babies died from malnutrition in the country's impoverished eastern province of Anhui after being fed fake baby milk.

But the right of a woman to sell her breast milk, an occupation in China, that like the West, disappeared decades ago, has sparked heated debate, the Beijing News said.

Yue Jiangmei, a 22-year-old mother from China's northern Hebei province, left her baby with a relative to work in Wenzhou, a city in the booming eastern province of Zhejiang, the Beijing News said.

"My daughter was 7 months old and able to be nourished with baby food and milk powder," the paper quoted Yue as saying.

She responded to an advertisement offering five times her salary, or about 4,000 yuan ($500) a month, to work as a wet nurse for a Wenzhou family.

"The company trained her for a week, which included knowledge of breast care, baby massage exercises, post-pregnancy exercises..." the paper quoted Hu Wei, a manager at the company, as saying.

"She was also taught Tang dynasty poems and lullabies," Hu said.

Yue's case has fired debate, the paper said, on whether wet-nursing can be regarded as "ethical work."

"Some people say ... children of rich families have breast milk while cash buys the rights of the mother's own child to enjoy her mother's milk."

Hu thought the market potential for wet nurses huge.

"The affluent level of society has the purchasing power, while the high wages will attract many women," Hu said, adding that professionals were appearing in major cities across China.

"Given the market has this demand, this shows that there is value and reason in it."
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Isn't wet nursing a parctice that goes back thousands of years and was extremely common up until about a century ago?
 
Originally posted by: So
Isn't wet nursing a parctice that goes back thousands of years and was extremely common up until about a century ago?
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Yep, but so was marrying mroe than one wife all under the age of 15.

 
Originally posted by: glen
Originally posted by: So
Isn't wet nursing a parctice that goes back thousands of years and was extremely common up until about a century ago?
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Yep, but so was marrying mroe than one wife all under the age of 15.
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What history have you been reading? Outside of the mormons that has never been a major part of western culture.
 
Maybe they should ask the wet nurses whether they feel exploited. A mother making 5 times the salary by wet nursing can provide food for the entire family. As long as there are adequate health checks i dont see a problem with this.
 
Damn good idea. Entrepreneurship at its finest 🙂

I'd like to see America's moms breast feeding their own kids again. That's a convention that should never have gone out of style.
 
Originally posted by: DainBramaged
Assuming that the milk is safe, it's certainly better than formula.
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Yes, and wet nursing has been practiced in many nations in ages. I don't see anything wrong about it.

 
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