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Chinese Milk Crisis Creates Mkt For Alternatives
In China's spiraling milk-contamination crisis, some mothers are making money selling their breast milk.
As news spread of the deadly taint of the industrial chemical melamine in China's milk supply last week, new father Jimandy Wu approached his wife with a business proposition: She could become a nai ma, or wet nurse. He had read on the Internet about the practice, in which a woman feeds her own breast milk to someone else's child.
'Why not,' says his 24-year-old wife, Tina Huang, a mother in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen who says she produces more milk than her own 2-month-old baby can use. 'It's a pity that I waste my breast milk when I see on TV so many kids with no milk to drink because of the contaminated powder.'
Ms. Huang's old job as a secretary paid just 1,000 yuan ($146) a month. The 12,000 yuan she will earn each month as a wet nurse will 'buy some good clothes for our daughter, and send her to a better kindergarten,' says Mr. Wu.
As Chinese parents panic about the tainted milk -- which authorities now admit began in late 2007 -- that has killed four and sickened more than 53,000 children, the fallout is breathing new life into an ancient profession. Wages for Chinese wet nurses, who post online ads and sign up at housework agencies around the country, have doubled since the milk crisis began on Sept. 12. They now run as high as 18,000 yuan a month.
On Tuesday in a residential Shenzhen neighborhood, six new mothers showed up looking for work at Zhong Jia Family Services Co., which serves as a broker for maids and, increasingly, women like Ms. Huang. 'I've been working in this industry for over 10 years, and never seen such a craze for wet nurses,' says Ai Xiaoxiong, the company's manager. Since Friday, Mr. Ai has registered 260 available women and found employment for 20.
While doctors say any breast milk from a healthy woman will help a baby grow and protect it against disease, the practice of having another woman nurse one's own baby was largely abandoned in the West in the 19th century. But the practice is common in a number of countries. China also has a long tradition of wet nursing, but the Communist Party considered the practice decadent and tried to stamp it out.
Breast-feeding is on the decline in China, where commercial formulas are heavily marketed. According to China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of poor rural women who breast-feed slipped to 38% in 2005 from 62% in 2000. The reasons for the decline vary, but many people appear to believe that formula is somehow better for their children. Among some wealthier families, a busy lifestyle gets in the way.
Many public-health experts promote breast-feeding. 'This formula scandal is like nature's wake-up call to all of us. It's not just about unscrupulous manufacturers,' says Yanhong Wheeler, a breast-feeding advocate and author under the pen name Xiao Wu who is often compared in China to the late Benjamin Spock, the famous pediatrician and author. 'We really must pay closer attention to . . . what we feed our offspring.'
Some parents searching for a wet nurse say they're desperate for an alternative to possibly tainted milk powder. Xiao Guidong, the father of a 4-month-old in the city of Chongqing, posted an ad on a popular online message board asking for a wet nurse who was 'in perfect health, has plenty of milk, and has good hygiene.' He's offering to pay the woman 3,000 yuan a month, plus free room and board.
'My mom takes care of my son,' says Mr. Xiao, who recently divorced his wife. 'I need a wet nurse urgently, especially because so much milk powder has problems.'
The upswing in demand for wet nurses is raising moral questions. It's often the poor who end up selling their milk. 'Many people look down on this job. I do it because I have no other method to earn more money,' says a woman named Ms. He, 24, from the northwestern Chinese city of Lanzhou. She runs an online ad selling her services.
Then there's the problem of what to do with a wet nurse's own child, since many of the women move in with their employers and, sometimes, they aren't allowed to bring their own babies to work. Ms. Huang, the prospective wet nurse, says she's willing to leave her own 2-month-old baby at home if that's what her employer wants. 'We can feed our baby with some other food, such as rice water,' she says.
Mr. Xiao says he doesn't want another baby in his house. 'If she feeds my son while her own son is crying, I cannot stand that,' he says.
He admits some might view hiring a wet nurse as exploitation, but he disagrees. 'They need higher pay and a better job while I need them to look after my baby. It is a good deal. We help each other,' he says.
To make sure that everyone is on the same page, Mr. Ai, the Shenzhen agent, requires that any potential wet nurse come into his office with her husband. 'I have to ask the husband face-to-face whether he will let his wife work as a wet nurse,' he says.
Scouting for employees, he also asks to see a mother's natural baby. 'Look at how fat this baby is,' says Mr. Ai, pointing at prospective wet nurse Zhang Amei's 4-month-old son, Zhang Youmin, who looks like a little Michelin Man. 'The fatter the baby, the better the milk,' he says.
It's a point of pride for Ms. Zhang, too. 'My milk is really good. My elderly relatives say the color and density are as good as formula,' says the 28-year-old.
Quantity is also important. 'Her milk is sufficient to feed three babies,' says Mr. Ai.
Ms. Zhang demurs. 'Maybe only two.'
Mr. Ai provides employees professional training on 'ethics, etiquette and attitude' -- such as the best way to hold your employer's baby -- to help ease the emotional and physical transition. He also asks that the families go to the hospital together while the wet nurse gets a checkup.
Some prospective wet nurses say that making a good match with the family whose baby they're going to feed is their only priority. Ms. Zhang, mother of the fat baby, says she first tried wet nursing when she gave some of her extra milk to her neighbor's baby.
'We do not care that much about money as long as we can make friends with the other family,' says her 38-year-old husband, Zhang Mingchuan.
'I was so angry when I read about the contaminated milk,' says Ms. Zhang. 'I had to help.'
