The Wire

Parents are approaching strangers on social media to source breastmilk for their babies, when they can’t access human milk through any other means. While registered milk banks, which screen and pasteurise milk do exist, in Australia they are few and far between, and charge a high price for what is quickly becoming a sought after commodity. Parents say they are forced to take matters into their own hands and use the internet to bypass the highly regulated system of signing up for registered donor milk. So why are they doing it, and how safe is it?