DENVER (KDVR) — Some new moms are selling their breast milk online after getting vaccinated, and advertising that their milk has COVID antibodies.
The website “Only the Breast” shows posts like that from across the country.
One Denver ad says, “I received the first round of the Pfizer COVID vaccine at the beginning of April.”
Another posts says the milk, ”contains strong COVID antibodies that are transferred to baby.”
“If mom has been vaccinated, there is a great chance that maybe the antibodies will be passed along to their baby,” said Rebecca Heinrich, the Director of Mothers’ Milk Bank in Arvada.
Her organization accepts donations from lactating moms with extra milk. “We safely pasteurize and process that milk for distribution in NICU’s across Colorado, and actually all over the country,” Heinrich said.
She is very encouraged by recent studies that show Pfizer and Moderna vaccines generated a strong immune response in pregnant and lactating women and that the antibodies were transferred to the baby.
“There’s a number of things that we don’t know yet about the number of antibodies that are passed into the milk, how long those antibodies are going to last, are those antibodies able to prevent viral infection,” Heinrich said.
Plus, she said, there are risks involved when buying breast milk online. “You really want to make sure that the milk is from a reliable source, and a person who you can trust, and also a person who has handled it correctly,” she said.
The FDA cautions against buying breast milk online, but this area is unregulated.
“For people who are looking to buy milk online, I would encourage them to look at the risks and weigh that for yourself,” Heinrich said.