When it comes to breast milk, what do you think?
Is it the love and warmth that feeds life, or the pain and exhaustion that mothers endure?
Whichever answer is, I'm afraid it has nothing to do with "business".
However, in the hands of some, breast milk is sold as a commodity and even flows through dirty black industrial chains.
Who is manipulating these transactions and what are the dangers behind them?
01
Breast milk, can it be a business as simple as that?
Until I realized this, I didn't think the human milk trade was a "normal" thing.
Searching on Tieba and Douban and many mother and baby exchange platforms, there is a lot of information about selling frozen human milk.
Someone wrote very briefly, saying only where and when it was stored.
Some people will also write "product quality instructions": good health, reasonable diet, good milk quality.
Some people write down the price and inventory directly under other people's purchase posts, as if they are serious business.
In fact, as early as August 2021, the surging news reported on the "human milk trade".
During the investigation, the reporter bought one package after another of frozen human milk for 15 yuan, and two days later, they received a cold chain transport package with 5 bags of milk in the foam box, all of which melted.
Others call themselves "intermediaries" in the human milk trade, saying that if a customer comes to them for human milk, they review the materials and contact moms in the same city. After the buyer and seller agree on the price, Bao Ma will regularly send human milk to the customer.
Judging from the information on the Internet, a big reason why the breast milk trade can exist is that the status quo of breastfeeding is that "full men do not know that hungry people are hungry".
Some mothers give their children too much milk and leave a lot every day.
I lost it and couldn't put it down, and I spent more money on the milk storage bag.
There are also many mothers who are sick, do not have enough milk, do not have time to breastfeed, or cannot breastfeed. If you don't want to use formula, you can only use the purchase of breastfeeding.
However, some people may buy human milk for another purpose.
For example, some people think that human milk has a variety of magical effects, which is a traditional health supplement: tonify qi and blood, health whitening, delay aging, and remove toxins.
Human milk is of course nutritious, but it is for infants and young children. What's more, even for babies, adding complementary foods after 4-6 months is scientific advice, enough to see that the nutritional value of human milk is quite limited.
It makes no sense to think that human milk is a "big tonic" for adults, and it is even foolish.
However, the superstitious nutritional tonic effect of human milk is not the most ridiculous aspect of the human milk trade.
Among the messages about the breast milk trade, there is one that caught my attention:
One mother said she wanted to give frozen breast milk for free, but someone added her and asked for a video.
It reminded me
Human milk trading doesn't seem to be as "simple" as it seems.
02
A "trading intermediary" hidden in the shadows
Searching for "human milk" and "wet nurse" on Twitter, I found signs of a black industry.
There are a lot of so-called "wet nurse intermediaries" who have thousands of followers on their accounts, and the pages are full of obscene information, including the videos mentioned above that were asked to be filmed, and it is difficult not to suspect that they are doing something illegal.
Where exactly are these things happening? Who are these "wet nurses"?
I actually visited, I added a friend of one of the intermediaries (hereinafter referred to as A) to an anonymous chat software, and then asked him.
A is more cautious than I thought.
First, he asked to turn on the two-way recall feature before the chat so that he could destroy the chat history at any time.
Second, if there is any doubt about the nearly 200 yuan membership fee he has set, he will immediately block the other party.
After joining this membership group, I found that he also banned screenshots - this app will remind screenshots to be sent to chat partners or group friends, which is simply an "undercover nemesis".
In our conversation, he also used a lot of black words, such as "Nai", "NM" for the wet nurse, and "X block" for X hundred yuan.
When I said that I was from Shanghai, A immediately recommended me to a part-time wet nurse who lived in Shanghai, with a deposit of 200 yuan and 2,000 yuan per hour, and the location was at the wet nurse's house.
At such a high price, what can buyers buy?
The first is that you can drink milk.
But it is warm for babies to drink milk in the arms of their mothers, and pornography for adults to drink in the arms of strange women.
A does not hide the essence of this one-time 2,000 yuan service.
So-called nurses are actually sex workers who provide special services to lactating women.
If the buyer wants more services, he can ask in advance, as long as the nurse agrees.
A has access to more than 40 such nurses, who provide services all over the country, called "airborne" in the jargon, and their daily itineraries are sent to the membership group, and only a few of them live or work part-time in specific cities.
Nurses are all twenty or thirty years old. But when I asked him if there was anything smaller, he didn't say no, just said very little.
On Twitter, it can also be seen that these so-called intermediaries use the "post-00s" as a selling point.
If the age information is true, it means that some girls conceive and have children before they reach adulthood and sell their milk and young bodies.
The malice and alienation of people caused by sex trafficking can be seen.
03
More profitable and darker black production
If you think that "adult wet nurses" are enough to break through the lower limit of cognition, it is too simple.
Remember the names of these intermediaries?
"Milk and Pregnancy Agency"
Yes, they introduce wet nurses, as well as pregnant women.
It is well known that breast milk can transmit diseases, and there is little difference in the degree of risk between drinking breast milk directly and unprotected sex.
So when I expressed concern about infectious diseases and safety, A immediately said, "Your idea is actually not suitable for finding a wet nurse," and introduced me to more expensive pregnant women's services, each service costing 3,000 yuan per service, and if the pregnancy period is long, there is additional money.
According to him, the basis for the existence of the pregnant woman business is because some businessmen believe that "pregnant women can be transported", so they also call pregnant women "transport artifacts", "transport beads" and "fortune".
This immediately reminded me of the so-called "virgin transporter", which is a deformed idea spawned by the sex trade or sexual violence, a superstitious idea that materializes women.
In the eyes of these intermediaries, pregnant women and nurses are the same thing, and "making full use" of the time before and after women give birth to children is the so-called "high consumption" and "high-end circle" of some people.
A said he was just working part-time as an "intermediary." I helped him do the math, and even part-time earned a lot.
According to online information, he registered an account in October 2020, and there are currently nearly 300 customers in the group, each of whom has to pay a membership fee of nearly 200 yuan.
In other words, in just over a year, the membership fee alone, A has earned nearly 60,000 yuan.
He is not the "boss" of the wet nurse and the pregnant woman, but just an intermediary between them and the buyer, collecting deposits and arranging time and place.
Whether or not it is drawn from the prostitutes can be imagined.
With such huge profiteering, it is no wonder that this industry can spread and grow in the dark corners of society.
04
Breaking the law and harming people
If it is only the sale of human milk, it is not a bad black industry, but the health and safety risks are large enough.
First, the physical condition and drug use of the person trafficking in breast milk cannot be confirmed.
There are many diseases transmitted by breast milk, such as hepatitis B, syphilis, and AIDS, and some drug components are also present in breast milk.
Secondly, as early as 2000, the Reply of the Department of Law and Supervision of the Ministry of Health on the Failure of Human Breast Milk to Operate as a Commodity clearly pointed out that human breast milk is not an ordinary food resource and cannot be produced and operated as a commodity.
The human milk trade is in an irregular and private disorderly state, and health safety and moral and ethical problems need to be faced and vigilant.
Breast milk may spoil during the transaction, leaving the eater sick. In particular, some breast milk, in order to hide the eyes and ears, is consigned as fruit, soap, cream, shoes and other commodities, which is more perishable.
Not to mention the practice of "drinking milk" as a service for the milk and pregnancy industry is absolutely illegal.
For example, as an "intermediary", A has committed the offence of seduction, accommodation and procuring prostitution:
"To induce another person into prostitution by means of money, material or other benefits, or to provide a place for the prostitution of others, or to match the prostitute with the client".
Because A's profits are so great, he may be sentenced to more than 5 years in prison according to the law.
Both parties to the milk and pregnancy transaction will also face administrative penalties or even criminal penalties.
The potential harm to women from these shady deals is even greater.
I once asked A in a chat if there was a wet nurse using drugs to induce breast milk, and I knew that there were prolactins and that it was entirely possible to use them driven by such a large amount of money.
He said that prolactin is expensive and harmful to the body, and the nurses he introduced will never use it.
Prolactins do cause harm, but they're not really that expensive, and it can't be proven whether these nurses are really useless.
If one of the parties to the transaction is pregnant, then the risk is greater.
There is only one suggestion for this A: lighten up.
In fact, the amount of force is not the most critical in pregnancy sex.
Whether a pregnant woman has a history of premature or miscarriage, the number of fetuses, etc., will affect safety.
Some of the behaviors during sex are more likely to lead to death.
Fundamentally, lactating women and pregnant women engage in sex trafficking and are inhuman.
Women during pregnancy and lactation clearly deserve more psychological and physical care than falling into the trap of money that prompts them to sell themselves.
Whether it is breast milk or a woman's body, once commercialized, it is to let women stand in front of the cliff.
05
How far is it to ban the trade in human milk in black production
For the milk and pregnancy industry, it goes without saying that the criminals involved in it should be sent to detention centers and prisons.
But what about the human milk trade?
Even finding a hundred reasons against the human milk trade will not change the reality that some mothers cannot breastfeed their children with themselves.
On the one hand, it is absolutely impossible to make it clear that it is absolutely impossible to trade breast milk privately.
As mentioned earlier, there are huge health and safety risks, and there are also problems of illegal transactions without formal channels to resolve disputes.
According to the provisions of the Criminal Law, sellers of human milk and intermediaries of transactions may commit the crime of illegal business operation and may bear corresponding legal responsibilities.
On the other hand, just eliminating access to breast milk does not actually solve the problem, and it is more necessary to have a legal and compliant safe channel to obtain breast milk.
For example, breast milk banks are now being gradually established.
At present, there are 26 breast milk banks in the country, distributed in major cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Guangzhou.
These breast milk banks are professional institutions that will ensure the safety of breast milk.
They screen and recruit qualified donors, and then collect, process, disinfect, store and distribute donated breast milk in a professional manner.
With more support and advocacy, breast milk banks (now mainly used in hospitals to help premature babies) may be able to stop the human milk trade caused by "milk-deficient babies".
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that even if breastfeeding does reduce neonatal mortality and is an effective measure of neonatal health care, it should not be infinitely elevated.
The frenzied pursuit of breastfeeding can even be used to kidnap every mother.
Even if breastfeeding is indeed the optimal solution for infant nutrition, formula can be a substitute when breastfeeding is not possible.
Trading human milk for the excessive pursuit of breastfeeding not only carries great risks, but also evolves into a coercion of women.
A woman is first and foremost an independent person before becoming a mother.
She has the right to decide whether to devote time and energy, endure exhaustion and pain, and breastfeed her children.
The change of concept also has a huge effect on curbing illegal transactions.
The black industry of human milk trading must be resolutely cracked down,
The regular access to breast milk for the rescue of newborns should be improved as soon as possible.
So that the milk trade is not hidden in sin,
Threaten people's health and destroy the morality of society.
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