Janet Nelson: Artificial Breast Milk? Industry tries once again to replace the human breast.

Here’s a new twist in the debates over breastfeeding. Researchers are now trying to grow breastmilk in the lab, since so many mothers have trouble breastfeeding because of workplace demands, lack of maternity leave, etc. And so instead of working to resolve those problems, the answer is more industrial products!




Take care,
Janet






A small start-up called Biomilq recently announced it has managed to grow human mammary cells that make at least two of the most common components of breast milk: a protein called casein and a sugar called lactose. This is the first step, the company hopes, to making human milk outside the human body.

Breast milk is of course far, far more complex than just casein and lactose. It is made up of at least hundreds of different components: a multitude of proteins, fats, and sugars, but also antibodies, hormones, and beneficial bacteria. Biomilq’s founders, Leila Strickland and Michelle Egger, say that they seek to eventually make milk that is “nutritionally” but not necessarily “immunologically” close to breast milk.




“A lot of moms aren’t getting the support they need,” said Meghan Azad, a breast-milk researcher at the University of Manitoba. Breastfeeding takes skill, which was lost for a generation when formula was dominant. It takes workplaces that give women the time and flexibility to breastfeed or pump. And it takes a culture that doesn’t shame women for breastfeeding in public. And although society makes it hard for women to breastfeed, it also tells them that “Breast is best.” The result is a nearly impossible set of expectations.




Read the full article in the Atlantic