US Mother Of Five Earns Rs 87,000 Monthly Selling Breast Milk

Emily Enger, a 33-year-old from Minnesota, is earning around (Rs 86,959) $1,000 monthly by supplying excess breast milk to supplement her regular income. She is a mother of five, and after each feeding, she pumps extra milk, bags it, and stores it in her freezer, not for her own children, but for sale to strangers. Ms Enger is part of a growing number of American mothers who are selling breast milk, driven by a cultural shift towards breastfeeding.

The change in recent years has been marked by the rise of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, spearheaded by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has batted for mothers to breastfeed infants instead of relying on baby formulas.

Social media has also played a role, with influencers also inspiring mothers to embrace breastfeeding publicly. The once-popular "fed is best" mantra has largely been replaced by "breast is best," reflecting growing awareness of breast milk's benefits.

While breastfeeding has caught on, not all mothers can produce enough milk. Challenges such as short maternity leaves, medication and health complications mean the mothers have to seek alternatives. This is where the likes of Ms Enger come into the picture.

One such customer is Briana Westland, 36, from Fort Lauderdale, a new mother, who is spending close to $1,200 monthly on breast milk for her four-month-old daughter, prioritising its nutritional quality over formula.

"I was formula fed, most of my friends were,” Ms Westland told The Times. “I think our parents were told it was just as good, but now we're questioning that. Formula has so many ingredients in it that we are only now starting to really scrutinise.”

Also Read | US Startup Claims To Have Found New Way To Make 5,000-Kg Of Gold Every Year

'Oversupplier'

Since Ms Enger is an oversupplier, she sometimes pumps 80-100 extra ounces daily. Up until now, she has sold thousands of ounces of breastmilk to her clients.

"At first I thought 'I have this milk sitting there in the freezer, I might as well just give it away'," Ms Enger said. "But then I thought, well you go to the store and you buy a gallon of milk or you go to the store and you buy formula. You can't go into a hair salon, for example, and expect a free haircut.

"Time and, literally, energy has gone into producing milk. That should be valued."

With the stigma around breastmilk vanished, capitalism has also stepped in. In March, Frida, a popular baby brand in the US, announced that it was launching a breast milk-flavoured ice cream to celebrate the release of its 2-in-1 manual breast pump.