Laboratory Breastmilk
Laboratory Breastmilk
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 Laboratory BreastmilkLaboratory breastmilk is a recent scientific invention. Ideally read The Guardian on it first - as what follows is a response to that 2020 article. Summary Laboratory breastmilk seems much better than formula. But it is still not as good as human breastmilk, whether directly from the mother or a wet nurse, or from another woman (e.g. safely shared or bought online). And yet laboratory breastmilk is being heralded as changing the way we feed our babies, and it is being commercialised with funding from billionaire Bill Gates. In my view, this is a disastrous shift in how we raise our children. Do you want a tech-based medicalised world or a mother-centred natural world?  What follows is my immediate, little-edited and long response to that article:- The need for the lying back and natural breast location and feeding after birth is unmentioned. The need for village, for sisterhood, for female elders, is unmentioned. The auric or energy exchange, especially the mother’s heart chakra, is unmentioned. Associated with this is that breastfeeding forces the mother to slow down and deepen her brainwave state and so bond deeply with the baby. This is a vital evolutionary need. Lab milk is an easy way to avoid this and carry on with modern stressful hectic life. It is better than formula, but is still not good enough. The fact that modern life is not the Way is unexplored. Lab human breastmilk is better than formula. But we really need a mother-centred world. We need this huge systemic change. All else is just temporary or weak. ‘Just keep trying’ is not enough. Where are the female elders and experienced sisters? I hope that it ends the formula industry and its associated cruelty to calves and cows. Very good news! But it will be a disaster if it changes ‘how we feed our babies for ever’. Breastmilk from the breast is by far the best. Industrial money shouldn’t be involved in such a thing as baby’s health. It is only for the very rare mother that cannot breastfeed. But even then wet nursing is better. Their info on tongue-tie is misleading. It associates tongue-tie with not latching, when most babies with tongue-tie and their mothers have no issues. Those that do have solutions. See What We Know and Don’t Know about Tongue-tie by Judy Slome Cohain (Midwifery Today magazine, Autumn 2018). Mastitis and other issues also have solutions, as there are many social and psychological issues that often go unaddressed. There is so much wrong with our society, our culture, that many of the issues faced by modern mothers would not have in a mother-centred world. This is the root of this. Stop fucking making tech the glamorous solution. They claim to be “women-owned, science-led and mother-centred”. If it was truly science-led, it needs to lead with all the evolutionary and village and elder info. The same goes to the claim to be mother-centred. This is marketing disinformation. In my view, it is insufficient, misleading and immoral. The real work of mothering and creating a mother-centred world, of massive systemic and cultural change is avoided. At least they mention a crucial fact, that - unlike breastmilk from a breast - lab-grown human breastmilk can’t change in response to a baby’s needs. The lack of antibodies and lack of mother’s biome is, in my view, way better than formula, but still poor. The article says that Biomilq is targeting breastfeeding mums that only need a boost, but then says the target is the mother that cannot breastfeed. This does not make sense. They say they don’t want to compromise any woman’s ability to breastfeed. But the introduction of billionaires has already compromised things. This tech will be used to allow things to carry on as ‘normal’ and avoid having to centre-stage mothers and natural family living (and thereby the health of Earth and its ecosystem, the environment, etc.). Money - not well-being - will be prioritised by governments, corporations and the system. The challenges of breastfeeding are not discussed as a society because - just like the current Climate and Ecological Emergency – it implies a massive change to the system, which capitalism and political power will not allow. Biomilq is merely a better way than formula to maintain the status quo. They do say that modern life does not allow women to focus on breastfeeding success, but their product is just an improved way of keeping a dysfunctional society. The article says that ‘The invention of formula should have put an end to the practice of wet nursing’. But why? Wet nursing is superior to formula and to Biomilq. For example, there is the skin-to-skin contact and the already-mentioned antibodies etc. Wet nurses were the Way of Nature, when a back-up was needed. They still should be. The article’s assertion is so wrong. Modern society makes it too personal (mother’s shortcomings) and not societal enough (system change). You haven’t tried everything to succeed at breastfeeding unless your society has allowed you to lie back undisturbed after birth and let the rooting reflex quietly take place. You haven’t tried everything to succeed at breastfeeding unless your society has provided you with a sisterhood of experienced mothers who have breastfed, who can support you. You haven’t tried everything to succeed at breastfeeding unless your society has many wise elder women that have served other women for years, who can sit with you and tell you enlightening stories and amusing anecdotes - and just listen. In my view – unlike Joan Wolf - breastfeeding does have huge advantages and mothers have not been misled about this. Breastfeeding has not been fetishised. It is absolutely NOT about a mother’s feeling of absolute power over her baby. In fact, Joan Wolf type assertions are consistent with a patriarchal society that seeks to control women, to keep them sexualised for men’s benefit, to keep capitalism intact. I am outraged by her comments. This is like climate science denial. How can this person be an ‘associate professor of women’s and gender studies’? It really matters that we breastfeed naturally and topple current societal shackles to allow this to happen. Why are you creating elite products? The associated inequality creates dystopia – even if the long-term goal is equal access - because as the article says, it becomes like whack-a-mole. Why not focus on natural equality for all? On a utopia of breastfeeding as the norm? Eventually, there is mention of the need for women to be supported. But the article still maintains that formula is good enough. I think lab human breastmilk would be so much better than formula. But above all, breastfeeding needs to be the norm, the mainstream. All the substitutes need to be for rare or unusual cases. There is no way that these products are natural. They are still artificial. Summing up, laboratory human breastmilk is way better than formula. But wet nursing is way better than lab breastmilk. But the real issue is: Why is mothering not at the centre of our culture? Why is it at the periphery of a rapacious Earth-destroying capitalist system? We have to beware the glamour of tech not really addressing the issue and allowing patriarchal capitalism to continue. The superrich billionaires will cream off all the human breastmilk profit. False reasons will be given to incentivise lab breastmilk, just as formula disastrously colonised the Poor World. Just like we need system change to solve climate change, we need system change to solve breastfeeding. Lab breastmilk must NOT ‘change how we feed our babies for ever’. Breastfeeding as part of Natural Family Living has served humanity excellently for millions of years. It needs to be reinstated as central to any culture. So, do you want a tech-based medicalised world or a mother-centred natural world?...  Resources
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Also see:- Breastfeeding articles |
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