- Sandrine Lungumbu
- BBC World Service
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an hour ago
Image source, Getty Images
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Breast milk is like a fingerprint that identifies the diet of the mother and baby.
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If you have children – or are thinking about having children – you may have heard that “breast milk is best.” But what if the mother and baby can’t breastfeed?
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), breast milk is an important source of nutrition and energy for babies. Breast milk can also support the body’s immunity against disease transmission, help reduce the risk of obesity, and potentially increase a child’s IQ when growing up.
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For mothers who are unable or unwilling to breastfeed, the main alternative is formula milk.
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However, startup companies called TurtleTree Labs and Biomilq are now working to change that by making breast milk real, without the aid of breasts.
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‘My breast milk has never been there‘
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Image source, DEEPA KULKARNI
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‘You have to accept that you can’t breastfeed and that doesn’t mean you are a failure’.
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Deepa Kulkarni, a mother of two, still remembers the difficulty of breastfeeding her children.
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“I have colostrum with my first child, he can consume it but afterward my breast milk is not there, and with my other children my breast milk never exists,” he said.
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Colostrum is the fluid produced by the mother’s breasts within a few days of delivery. Colostrum has a thick consistency and is usually golden yellow in color.
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“We tried expressing milk for a month and I couldn’t even produce half an ounce of milk in one day, after a while my breasts were dry. So I had to choose between continuing breastfeeding and starving my baby or feeding my baby.”
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As a new mother, Deepa is not only overwhelmed by being a parent for the first time, but she also finds it difficult to live up to social expectations at first.
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“You have to accept that you can’t breastfeed but that doesn’t mean you are a failure.”
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New approach
Infant formula is often made from cow’s milk that has been specially formulated to make it more suitable for babies to consume. Formula milk also provides the nutrients babies need to grow and develop.
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But formula doesn’t provide all the benefits that breast milk has – and that’s what inspired these start-up companies.
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TurtleTree Labs utilizes stem cells donated from breast milk. The cells are then processed through a bioreactor, where they are converted into mammary gland cells.
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The cells of the mammary glands are mixed with a special formula that causes them to lactate and this milk is filtered before being turned into a final product.
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In theory, this technique could be used to produce milk from any mammal, as long as stem cells are available.
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US start-up Biomilq, led by food scientist Michelle Egger and cell biologist Leila Strickland, uses a different technique to produce mammary gland cells.
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Scientists say breast milk is made of thousands of components, such as protein, fatty acids, hormones, bacteria and sugar.
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However, experts say this complexity makes artificial breast milk difficult to produce.
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“Breast milk is produced by elements that come from the blood, digestive system, immune system, and the immune system of the mother’s breast, but also from fatty acids that have been broken down by the mother which then passes into the milk,” said Dr. Natalie Shenker, a breast milk researcher at Imperial College London.
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Dr Shenker is also the co-founder of the Human Milk Foundation, or Yayasan ASI, an organization founded to support breastfeeding amid a lack of milk banks in the UK. Through this foundation, people can donate breast milk to other people in need.
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Image source, Getty Images
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Worldwide, only 40% of babies under six months of age are exclusively breastfed
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Is artificial breast milk the same as real breast milk?
Scientists say they can only hope that laboratory-made breast milk can mimic some elements of breast milk, particularly immunity and human-to-human responses that affect its composition.
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Biomilq and TurtleTree Labs say their goal is not to replace breast milk, but to create long-term options that are more nutritious than formula for parents.
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“Breast milk is by far the best thing for the baby and nothing can replace it. I do not believe it will be achieved, regardless of the technology used because breast milk is very personal, and the character of breast milk depends on the environment of the mother, where she lives, their nutrition, “said Max Rye, co-founder of TurtleTree Labs.
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“What we want to do is produce something that can help improve the options that have been around, and that’s basically cow’s milk powder mixed with whole vegetable extracts and other things that are very, very different from breast milk.”
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In recent decades, scientific research has indicated that breast milk is made differently for each child by their respective mothers.
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Breast milk content is influenced by the mother’s immunological and genetic level. The sugar content in breast milk can even vary from one mother to another and their babies.
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“Breast milk is like a fingerprint which uniquely identifies the diet of mothers and babies,” said Dr. Shenker.
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“This is a two-way process, there is an interaction between what mothers experience in their environment, but also vice versa. If the mother is exposed to bacteria or viruses, the immune system will produce antibodies, which are then directed to the breast and enter the milk, protecting the baby against it. specific pathogens. ”
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WHO recommends that mothers breastfeed their newborn babies for at least the first six months.
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In the world, only 40% of babies under six months of age are exclusively breastfed.
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Image source, Getty Images
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‘Artificial breast milk will not be sold without extensive testing’
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Deepa now lives with her family in Delhi, India. She said her children were not badly affected by being fed formula milk as babies.
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“After 18 years, I don’t see any difference between my attachment to my daughter or son and I don’t see any difference in their health,” he said.
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Can artificial breast milk be marketed successfully?
Dr Shenker believes that making alternatives to formula and breast milk faces a number of challenges, such as whether it can be a commercial success.
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“Blood and milk are not really that different as fluids,” he said.
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“Milk has evolved over millions of years to be a source of nutrition and immune support as well as the development of the baby’s organs [membuat] milk [buatan] actually more complicated than blood [buatan].
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“Although artificial blood has been researched for more than 70 years to solve the blood donation challenge, there is no commercially available artificial blood product on the market that is safe and effective, and that’s after it was carefully developed privately.
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“If you look at it from that perspective, the chances of producing something very similar to breast milk would, in my opinion, be impossible. But that doesn’t mean that some elements of breast milk can’t be replicated in some aspects.”
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In June, Biomilq received US $ 3.5 million in funding and TurtleTree Labs received US $ 3.2 million.
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Breastfeeding groups and doctors say that the investment made to the two companies is better allocated towards efforts to support breastfeeding mothers or provide better access to milk banks.
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TurtleTree Labs, which receives funding from the Singapore government, said breastfeeding mothers and mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed need to be supported with more funding.
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“I don’t think we have to choose between each other,” said Rye.
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“I think there should be an effort on both sides, where mothers who cannot breastfeed have access to better or higher quality infant formula and a significant amount of funds can be used to promote education and help breastfeeding mothers.”
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TurtleTree Labs plans to sell its technology to formula milk makers, rather than selling products directly to consumers, while Biomilq plans to sell directly to consumers.
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“Technology moves very fast and the most exciting thing about what we can do is the scale. We are targeting as soon as next year we can sell some of our products in the market,” said Rye.
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Although their goal is to provide products at affordable prices, TurtleTree Labs says their product prices will be high initially.
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“The first product is always very expensive but after one year, there will be more products on the market so the price will drop dramatically,” said Rye.
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“We anticipate the same will happen with this product, but initially the price of this product may be ultra-premium.”
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‘Safety is my biggest concern ‘
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Image source, Shireen Friday
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‘I will probably still use formula milk’
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Shireen Friday giving exclusive breastfeeding to her first child for 15 months could not give the same to her second daughter because of work.
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“When I had my first daughter 10 years ago in Grenada, the only option I knew was to give her breast milk or formula,” she said.
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Shireen admits that as a young mother, she did not know all available options such as expressing breastmilk and that at that time the general norm was to exclusively breastfeed a newborn.
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With his second daughter, he used a formula from the start so that he could make a smooth transition back to work. But when her daughter was six months old, she stopped consuming formula milk.
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“I tried everything, but she didn’t want to drink anything other than breast milk, so I had to express breastmilk for the first time in my life. She is now 16 months old and still breastfeeding,” she said.
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“The journey of expressing my breastmilk is very difficult; it makes me very alone and mentally exhausted, because often I just sit and spend 30 minutes, depending on how much milk I have. I think expressing breastmilk is more painful than breastfeeding because of the constant pulling.”
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Shireen said she was hesitant about trying engineered breast milk as an alternative to formula or breast milk.
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“I think, like all moms, I definitely have safety concerns, especially with all the things that are made in the lab. Newborns are already very vulnerable, so if they say this product is 100% safe, I won’t feel comfortable. I might. will continue to use formula milk. ”
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TurtleTree Labs says part of the biggest challenge they face is educating people about their milk production. They say the methods for taking and manufacturing the cells don’t contain any synthetic chemicals.
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“The medium or solution we use to store cells is exactly like the simulation in a human or a cow. It can be consumed by humans without any problem,” said Rye.
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Critics have raised concerns about the regulation and transparency of these new products. TurtleTree Labs says most of the information about milk, the final product and the manufacturing process will be published before each product is sold on the market.
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“Not a single product will be sold on the market without extensive testing and testing, especially since we are working with a giant baby formula company that consumers already trust,” he said.
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