In this research note, we call attention to human milk donation being essentially omitted from the philanthropy literature and bodily gifting research. We focus here on human milk donations for infant feeding through nonprofit milk banks. We argue that its omission is due to two main factors: (a) the incoherence of defining human milk donation and the challenges to its regulation and (b) its consideration as care work and the characteristics of the milk donor identity. We end with avenues for future research in this area.
AlmelingR. (2009). Gender and the value of bodily goods: Commodification in ovarian egg and sperm donation. Law & Contemporary Problems, 72, 37–58.
2.
AzemaE.CallahanS. (2003). Breast milk donors in France: A portrait of the typical donor and the utility of milk banking in the French breast feeding context. Journal of Human Lactation, 19(2), 199–202.
3.
BekkersR.WiepkingP. (2011). A literature review of empirical studies of philanthropy: Eight mechanisms that drive charitable giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(5), 924–973.
4.
BennettR. (2003). Factors underlying the inclination to donate to particular types of charity. International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 8(1), 12–29.
5.
BharadvaK.TiwariS.MishraS.MukhopadhyayK.YadavB.AgarwalR. K.KumarV. (2014). Human milk banking guidelines. Indian Pediatrics, 51(6), 469–474.
6.
CarrollK. (2015). Breastmilk donation as care work. In Ethnographies of breastfeeding: Cultural contexts and confrontations (pp. 173–186). Bloomsbury.
7.
CarterS. K.Reyes-FosterB. M. (2016). Pure gold for broken bodies: Discursive techniques constructing milk banking and peer milk sharing in US news. Symbolic Interaction, 39(3), 353–373.
8.
CarverA.ChellK.DavisonT. E.MasserB. M. (2018). What motivates men to donate blood? A systematic review of the evidence. Vox Sanguinis, 113(3), 205–219.
9.
CassidyT. M. (2012). Mothers, milk and money: Maternal corporeal generosity, social psychological trust, and value in human milk exchange. Journal of the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, 3(1), 96–111.
CassidyT. M.DykesF. (2019). Banking on milk. Routledge.
12.
CharngH. W.PiliavinJ. A.CalleroP. L. (1988). Role identity and reasoned action in the prediction of repeated behavior. Social Psychology Quarterly, 51, 303–317.
13.
CohenM. (2017). Regulating milk: Women and cows in France. The American Journal of Comparative Law, 65, 496–526.
14.
CohenM. (2019). Should human milk be regulated?UC Irvine Law Review, 9, 557–634.
15.
De WitA.BekkersR. (2016). Exploring gender differences in charitable giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(4), 741–761.
16.
DickensonD. (2001). Property and women’s alienation from their own reproductive labour. Bioethics, 15(3), 205–217.
17.
DoshmangirL.NaghshiM.KhabiriR. (2019). Factors influencing donations to human milk bank: A systematic review of facilitators and barriers. Breastfeeding Medicine, 14(5), 298–306.
18.
DreznerN. D.GarveyJ. C. (2016). LGBTQ alumni philanthropy. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 45(Suppl. 1), 52S–71S.
19.
EinolfC. J. (2011). Gender differences in the correlates of volunteering and charitable giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(6), 1092–1112.
20.
EnglandP. (2005). Emerging theories of care work. Annual Review of Sociology, 31, 381–399.
21.
GartnerL. M.MortonJ.LawrenceR. A.NaylorA. J.O’HareD.SchanlerR. J.EidelmanA. I. (2005). Breastfeeding and the use of human milk. Pediatrics, 115(2), 496–506.
22.
GribbleK. D. (2014). “I’m happy to be able to help”: Why women donate milk to a peer via Internet-based milk sharing networks. Breastfeeding Medicine, 9(5), 251–256.
23.
GrøvslienA. H.GrønnM. (2009). Donor milk banking and breastfeeding in Norway. Journal of Human Lactation, 25(2), 206–210.
24.
HMBANA (December9, 2014) Human Milk Banking Association of North America Takes a Stand against Paying for Donationshttp://www.hmbana.org
25.
HazenM. A. (2006). Silences, perinatal loss, and polyphony. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 19(2), 237–249.
26.
HewlettB. S.WinnS. (2014). Allomaternal nursing in humans. Current Anthropology, 55(2), 200–229.
27.
KentJ.FanninM.DowlingS. (2019). Gender dynamics in the donation field: Human tissue donation for research, therapy and feeding. Sociology of Health & Illness, 41(3), 567–584.
28.
LearoydP. (2012). The history of blood transfusion prior to the 20th century–Part 1. Transfusion Medicine, 22(5), 308–314.
29.
LegatoM. J. (2004). Gender-specific issues in organ transplantation. In SanfeyI. H.FrcsiF. (Eds.), Principles of gender-specific medicine (1st ed., pp. 1116–1127). Academic Press.
30.
MaussM. (1954). The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies. Cohen & West.
31.
MeschD.OsiliU.AckermanJ.DaleE. (2015). How and Why Women Give: Current and future directions for research on women’s philanthropy.
32.
MeschD. J.BrownM. D.MooreZ. I.HayatA. D. (2011). Gender differences in charitable giving. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing, 16(4), 342–355.
33.
NewmanR. H. (1995). Perception of factors relating to gender differences in philanthropy. Retrieved from ProQuest Digital Dissertations. (AAT 9532669)
34.
NoëlL.MartinD. E. (2015). The exception of medical products of human origin: Towards global governance tools. In New cannibal markets: Globalization and commodification of the human body (p. 383). Edition Foundations Maison des Sciences de l’Homme.
35.
OregA. (2019). Milk donation after losing one’s baby: Adopting a donor identity as a means of coping with loss. Social Science & Medicine, 238, 112519.
36.
OregA. (2020). The grief ritual of extracting and donating human milk after perinatal loss. Social Science & Medicine, 265, 113312.
37.
OregA.AppeS. (2020). “Ain’t no hood like motherhood”: The complexity of human milk donor identity. Social Science Quarterly, 101(2), 439–458.
38.
PalmquistA. E. (2015). Demedicalizing breastmilk: The discourses, practices, and identities of informal milk sharing. Ethnographies of breastfeeding: Cultural contexts and confrontations (pp. 23–44). Bloomsbury Publishing.
39.
PalmquistA. E.DoehlerK. (2014). Contextualizing online human milk sharing: Structural factors and lactation disparity among middle income women in the US. Social Science & Medicine, 122, 140–147.
40.
PalmquistA. E.PerrinM. T.Cassar-UhlD.GribbleK. D.BondA. B.CassidyT. (2019). Current trends in research on human milk exchange for infant feeding. Journal of Human Lactation, 35(3), 453–477.
41.
PATH. (2013). Strengthening human milk banking: A global implementation framework (Version 1.1). Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Initiative.
42.
PaynterM. J.HaywardK. (2018). Medicine, body fluid and food: The regulation of human donor milk in Canada. Healthcare Policy, 13(3), 20–26.
43.
PiliavinJ. A.CalleroP. L. (1991). The Johns Hopkins series in contemporary medicine and public health. Giving blood. Johns Hopkins University Press.
44.
Pimenteira ThomazA. C.Maia LoureiroL. V.da Silva OliveiraT.de Mendonca Furtado MontenegroN. C.Dantas Almeida JuniorE.Fernando Rodrigues SorianoC.Calado CavalcanteJ. (2008). The human milk donation experience: Motives, influencing factors, and regular donation. Journal of Human Lactation, 24(1), 69–76.
45.
PuotiF.RicciA.Nanni-CostaA.RicciardiW.MalorniW.OrtonaE. (2016). Organ transplantation and gender differences: A paradigmatic example of intertwining between biological and sociocultural determinants. Biology of Sex Differences, 7(1), 35.
46.
Reyes-FosterB. M.CarterS. K.HinojosaM. S. (2015). Milk sharing in practice: A descriptive analysis of peer breast milk sharing. Breastfeeding Medicine, 10(5), 263–269.
47.
Reyes-FosterB. M.CarterS. K.HinojosaM. S. (2017). Human milk handling and storage practices among peer milk-sharing mothers. Journal of Human Lactation, 33(1), 173–180.
48.
St-OngeM.ChaudhryS.KorenG. (2015). Donated breast milk stored in banks versus breast milk purchased online. Canadian Family Physician, 61(2), 143–146.
49.
ShawR. M. (2003). Theorizing breastfeeding: Body ethics, maternal generosity and the gift relation. Body & Society, 9(2), 55–73.
50.
ShawR. M. (2008). The notion of the gift in the donation of body tissues. Sociological Research Online, 13(6), 1–10.
51.
ShawR. M. (2015). Breast milk sharing and exchange. In ShawR. M.(Ed.), Ethics, moral life and the body (pp. 177–200). Palgrave Macmillan.
52.
ShawR. M.BartlettA. (Eds.). (2010). Giving breastmilk: Body ethics and contemporary breastfeeding practice. Demeter Press.
53.
ShawR. M.MorganM. (2017). Bio-intimate economies of breastmilk exchange: Peer-milk sharing and donor breastmilk in the NICU. In Bioethics beyond altruism (pp. 319–342). Palgrave Macmillan.
54.
SimmonsW. O.EmanueleR. (2007). Male–female giving differentials: Are women more altruistic?Journal of Economic Studies, 34(6), 534–550.
55.
SteinmanJ. L. (2006). Gender disparity in organ donation. Gender Medicine, 3(4), 246–252.
56.
SwansonK. W. (2014). Banking on the body. Harvard University Press.
TitmussR. M. (1970). The gift relationship. New Press.
59.
WaringM. (1988). If women counted. Harper Collins.
60.
WeaverG.BertinoE.GebauerC.GrovslienA.Mileusnic-MilenovicR.ArslanogluS.MoroG. E. (2019). Recommendations for the establishment and operation of human milk banks in Europe: A consensus statement from the European Milk Bank Association (EMBA). Frontiers in Pediatrics, 7, Article 53.
61.
WhiteK. M.PoulsenB. E.HydeM. K. (2017). Identity and personality influences on donating money, time, and blood. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46(2), 372–394.
62.
World Health Organization. (2003). Global strategy for infant and young child feeding.
63.
World Health Organization. (2010). Screening donated blood for transfusion-transmissible infections: recommendations.
