When my son was born, the next day he developed a mysterious fever along with another baby. The CDC was even called in to investigate. Never figured out what was wrong, but it was at the height of the AIDS/HIV crises, the superbugs as they called them, and no one was taking any chances. Fortunately, both babies got over it, but my son developed jaundice. The consequence: he wasn't nursing - disinterested.
There was a special group in the area, women who developed a program to help nursing mothers with special problems, encourage pumping, etc. But they weren't La Leche League Nazis about it either. So, when I needed to pump regularly, they had mechanical pump they sent me home with so I could express milk regularly until my son could nurse. (This group became very well known and became a kind of pilot program for developing same in other communities. OUt of gratitude, I went on to volunteer with them.)
I lived in a rural area, across from a dairy farm. Delirious with worry and no sleep, having not had a decent night's sleep for a week, I listened to the cows moo when the dairy truck pulled up at four a.m. I listened to the morning farm noises, the diesel engine, doors slamming, doors sliding, the cows, the farmer, the chickens stirring - all against the backdrop of the mechanical pump working away and the spray of breast milk regularly hitting the sides of the collection container. Lulled into revery, I thought how wonderful this program was, how great these women were, the women who'd counseled me and let me know it would all be ok. The other mom with the sick baby had had a 13 lb kid who wouldn't stop feeding, and she gave it up straight away. she was sore and tired. They didn't make her feel bad for her decision. At that time, I thought, as I heard the cows moo, sitting there in the summer heat, hot and sticky, 2 a.m., i thought, "Oh Bessie, I totally get it. I'm hooked up to one of these things too, only no truck is pulling up to my door to take it away."
Aha! Why not, I thought. Breast milk is so great for babies, and so many women can breast feed for whatever reason ... this was a fabulous idea. I elaborated on it further a couple of months later, as I was expressing extra milk to store and freeze for a trip a couple months later, so my mom could bottle feed him breast milk. It occurred to me that it would be totally awesome if I could do the same every day. IOW, i could make a little extra cash by expressing milk every two hours, storing one batch for other families, the other for my son. Living across from a dairy farm, I would sit there thinking about how it would all work. Would breast milk trucks pull up to individual homes? Would there be collection units in population centers. How would it be kept sterile. etc.
Maybe it was post-partum delirium? All I know is: it made sense to me. I know plenty of women who had trouble nursing or who had to work under conditions where it was difficult to express and store breast milk. Why not?
I wasn't impoverished. I'm sure most folks here would see us as poor, rural, wayward hicks from the sticks. I guess we were. But my point it, it was desperately poor and, since then, I really *have* been desperately poor. So I know the difference. At the time, we managed on a single income at the time, though I would eventually subsidize with a $2500 student loan and more hours working. At the time, my grocery bill was ~$30/week. If I were to have gotten $10/day for expressing breast milk, allowing my family to be more comfortable financially - so I could be full-time mom, part-time student? In a heartbeat.
So, there you go.
I imagine all the artisanal parenting these days means there are a lot of SAHMs who are committed to the value of breastfeeding who, in a heartbeat, would take $20/day for their breast milk. It's not the worst money for something you're doing anyway - and if they feel a political commitment to the effort - if they view it as a form of lifestyle politics- change the world through breastfeeding -- I can see a lot of middle class SAHMs doing it simply to make being a SAHM affordable. They can get by on one income, but the extra $100/week would make it a little less difficult.