Chinese Formula Crisis Brings Back Wet-Nursing

Without sounding too cliched, I'm not a preacher, I'm a teacher. So last week, when the news story about tainted formula in China broke, I was very hesitant to write about it. After all, it really had very little to do with breastfeeding and was it really appropriate to sprinkle the guilt--the "I told you so" or "Everyone knows breast is best"--into an already frightening situation? However, amidst the blame and the scandal, breastfeeding has come into play...wet-nursing is on the rise!

The practice of having one mother breastfeed another mother's child went out-of-style in the 19th century in many countries. In China, the Communist Party has tried to do away with it. Breastfeeding rates have declined in China, where formulas is heavily marketed. According to China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of poor rural women who breastfeed fell to 38% in 2005 from 62% in 2000. The marketing is clearly working as there is a steadfast belief that formula is better for children.

Wet-nurses are now a shining light...Tina Huang, a mother in the town of Shenzhen 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 the equivalent of $146 a month. She will now earn approximately $1,800 each month as a wet nurse which "will buy some good clothes for our daughter, and send her to a better kindergarten," says Huang's husband. Yanhong Wheeler, a breastfeeding advocate and author under the pen name Xiao Wu says, "This formula scandal is like nature's wake-up call to all of us. It's not just about unscrupulous manufacturers. We really must pay closer attention to what we feed our offspring."