The Value Of Breast Milk Poem by James McLain

Your white creamy milk
butter and all
is worth better health for your babies,
which is priceless.

So how does Euros
130/litre sound for the value of breast milk!

Then there are taste tests
which require part time volunteers.

That's how much neonatal units
in hospitals in the UK pay to milk banks.
But that's not for the milk,
that's for the processing costs of the milk bank
that collects and pasturises it.

Premature babies fed on it
have better chances of surviving.

That's one figure.
We can also consider the number of lives
lost through babies
not being breastfed
and the cost to our health services.

Breast milk
is the most locally produced
natural food there is - replacement feeds
require processing and transport
which has an environmental impact.

Mothers aren't paid to breastfeed their babies,
but if they don't breastfeed,
they have to pay for breastmilk substitutes,
so we can think about the cost of that
and the multi-billion Euro industry
that has arisen and the harm that it does.

It is not bad in Irish coffee either.