Banking On Breast Milk

It's a drink so beneficial that its claims include protection against infections and allergies, and even the possibility of making you smarter.

In a special HealthWatch report Tuesday night, Nesita Kwan reported that women all over the world make this drink for their babies every day. It's breast milk.

Now, Kwan said, some women who can't produce breast milk are choosing to buy it.

The benefits of breast milk are so numerous that a new kind of bank is springing up in this country; the breast milk bank.

The concept may seem a little odd to those who aren't accustomed to the idea, but Kwan said a growing number of women say mother's milk is so good that it's worth it at almost any price.

The image of a baby cuddled at the breast completes the romantic ideal of motherhood, but the science behind this intimate act increasingly shows that mother's milk is the perfect first food.

"Nothing can substitute," said human milk scientist Paula Meier, with Rush University Medical Center.

Kwan said that Meier and other scientists lead world class programs to encourage breast feeding.

But nursing isn't always an option, such as in the case of Bahia Reneau, a Naperville mother who adopted her son, Landon. She tried formula milk, but it caused cramps and constipation. So, believing that breast milk is best, she and her husband are choosing to buy it from someone else.

"Within a day, he actually had a huge bowel movement. He goes every day now," Reneau said. "He's definitely ... just very happy and calm and real easy."

Even those who can afford to buy the breast milk call it liquid gold. At three dollars an ounce, or about a hundred dollars a day to feed baby, the cost can be prohibitive.

Still, Kwan said there are now seven human milk banks in the United States, and more are in development.

Those banks depend on mothers like Lori Ann Oyen, who had baby Leah three months ago.

"With Leah, I've donated 546 ounces so far, and I have much more to give," Oyen told NBC5.

This Arlington Heights mother pumps her milk, freezes it, then packs it in a cooler.

Oyen doesn't get paid anything for her baby's elixir. She even has to pass a medical exam and get her doctor's OK. But she told NBC5 that it's all worth it.

"Everyone asks, 'What are you getting out of this?' I say, 'The satisfaction of helping children,'" she said.

Oyen ships her frozen milk to a breast milk bank in North Carolina. There it's pooled with all the other donations and pasteurized in a container of hot water.

"We use a temperature low enough to maintain as much of those immune properties and vitamins that we can," said Margie Mould, the milk bank director.