Table 4.
Milk‐sharing practices of study participants (n = 168), stratified by HMS donor/recipient status
| Recipients (n = 70) | Donors (n = 98) | Total (n = 168) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milk‐sharing practice | N | % | N | % | N | % |
| Prevalence of receiving human milk | ||||||
| Has ever purchased HMa | 1 | 1.4 | 3 | 3.1 | 4 | 2.4 |
| Has ever received HM from a milk bank* | 13 | 18.6 | 5 | 5.1 | 18 | 10.7 |
| Has ever had their baby cross‐nursed by another person* | 3 | 4.3 | 4 | 4.1 | 7 | 4.2 |
| Has ever received S‐HM** | 70 | 100 | 3 | 3.1 | 73 | 43.5 |
| Has received S‐HM in the past 18 months** | 70 | 100 | 0 | 0 | 70 | 41.7 |
| Prevalence of providing human milk | ||||||
| Has ever sold HMa | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.0 | 1 | 0.6 |
| Has ever provided HM to a milk banka | 1 | 1.4 | 3 | 3.1 | 4 | 2.4 |
| Has ever cross‐nursed another person's baby* | 4 | 5.7 | 3 | 3.1 | 7 | 4.2 |
| Has ever donated S‐HM** | 17 | 24.3 | 98 | 100 | 115 | 68.5 |
| Has donated S‐HM in the past 18 months** | 14 | 20.0 | 81 | 82.7 | 95 | 56.5 |
| Methods used for connecting with HMS parents | ||||||
| Online group (e.g., EOF, HM4HB, BF listserv, etc.) | 39 | 55.7 | 59 | 60.2 | 98 | 58.3 |
| I already knew them** | 5 | 7.1 | 42 | 42.9 | 47 | 28.0 |
| Facilitated through a mutual friend/acquaintance* | 3 | 4.3 | 15 | 15.3 | 18 | 10.7 |
| Facilitated through a lactation consultant* | 12 | 17.1 | 5 | 5.1 | 17 | 10.1 |
| Facilitated through a midwife or doula** | 36 | 51.4 | 4 | 4.1 | 40 | 23.8 |
| Ever shared milk with the following individuals: | ||||||
| Friend | 47 | 67.1 | 33 | 33.7 | 80 | 47.6 |
| Online acquaintance that you have not met in person | 21 | 30.0 | 36. | 36.7 | 57 | 33.9 |
| Online acquaintance that you have met in person* | 27 | 38.6 | 22 | 22.4 | 49 | 29.2 |
| Someone you connected with through an intermediary | 7 | 10.0 | 13 | 13.3 | 20 | 11.9 |
| Family member | 9 | 12.9 | 8 | 8.2 | 17 | 10.1 |
| Someone you met in your local community (offline) | 2 | 2.9 | 5 | 5.1 | 7 | 4.2 |
| Only shared milk with friends and/or family* | 30 | 42.9 | 25 | 25.5 | 55 | 32.7 |
| Methods of milk exchange | ||||||
| Directly (met in person to pick up milk)* | 66 | 94.3 | 82 | 83.7 | 148 | 88.1 |
| Indirectly (milk was given to someone else to give to the recipient) | 17 | 24.3 | 21 | 21.4 | 38 | 22.6 |
| Received via mail/shippeda | 3 | 4.3 | 1 | 1.0 | 4 | 2.4 |
| Via cross‐nursinga | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2.0 | 2 | 1.2 |
| Type of milk donateda | ||||||
| Surplus E‐HM originally intended to feed my child | ‐ | ‐ | 70 | 72.2 | ‐ | ‐ |
| HM that I expressed specifically for donating | ‐ | ‐ | 5 | 5.2 | ‐ | ‐ |
| Both surplus E‐HM and HM expressed for donating | ‐ | ‐ | 23 | 23.7 | ‐ | ‐ |
| Estimated proportion of child's HM intake that was S‐HM (during HMS arrangement)a | ||||||
| A little or some | 25 | 36.2 | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ |
| About half | 17 | 24.6 | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ |
| Most or all | 22 | 31.9 | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ |
| It varied | 5 | 7.2 | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ |
| Child was receiving mother's own milk while milk sharinga | 59 | 85.5 | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ |
| Child was still feeding at the mother's breast during part or all of milk‐sharing arrangementa | 49 | 71.0 | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ | ‐ |
Abbreviations: BF, breastfeeding; E‐HM, expressed human milk; EOF, Eats on Feets; HM, human milk; HM4HB, Human Milk 4 Human Babies; HMS, human milk sharing; S‐HM, shared human milk.
a
Statistical testing was not conducted due to small cell sizes or lack of a comparison group.
*
p < 0.05
**
p < 0.0001.