Did you see the wet nurse article in Time?

[MamaMolly]

Man, here I am giving this stuff to DD for free and according to Time I could be getting up to $1,000 per week! What am I thinking? ;-)

So this got me wondering about the breastmilk bank. Do you get paid for that, too? Or is it a 'donation'?
And heck, at $1,000 per week could you take the donation off your taxes???

Just wondering. Maybe I need to get out more...:P

[lisams]

I saw that! I could use $1000 a WEEK! Although I don't like the job title "Wet Nurse", seems too outdated. Maybe I'd call it "Professional Lactator", lol!

[Radosti]

I donated 760 ounces to the milk bank and got a letter from them for the "donated value" of the milk to use for tax purposes. At $3.50 an ounce, it turned out to be a nice write off. However, when I was donating, that wasn't why I was doing so. I didn't even know it was possible to write off breastmilk donations.

My mom was expressing milk for another baby when she was nursing my brother. The parents paid her for it. However, this was in Ukraine, no formula was available, and there were no pumps. She expressed all the milk by hand and they picked it up once a day. She didn't do it for the money either. When she started expressing for them, their daughter was failing to thrive and was basically dying. They sent my mom thank you cards for years on the girl's birthday.

[Momof3Labs]

Hey!!! I didn't get a letter from my breastmilk bank, and I donated over 1100oz - that write-off would have been VERY nice!

No, I was not paid for my donations. Heck, I'm having a hard time even getting them to cover the expense of the dry ice (about $11 per shipment, with 150+oz in a shipment), despite their written instructions that they would.

[Radosti]

Yeah, the director of the Delaware Milk Bank is a very nice lady and she went above and beyond to make sure her donors knew that she valued their donations tremenedously. She even drove out here one time to pick up a donation because I was afraid that it was wayyyy too hot to ship and she had several issues with Fed Ex.

Update/Correction:
I just called the Delaware Milk Bank. The NICU nurse from CHOP gave me the wrong info. Apparently, the milk bank is revamping it's equipment and facilities and will reopen. Yeah! I was really upset to hear that it closed.

[amw]

You're doing a great thing by donating so much milk, but unfortunately milk donations are not tax deductible. You are allowed to deduct your out of pocket expenses such as mileage to the donation site, shipping costs, milk storage bags, etc., but not the value of the milk itself. You might want to think about amending your tax return before the IRS comes knocking...

I did a google search and copied this from the HMBANA website for you:
Can I claim my milk donation as a tax deduction on my tax return?
No. The IRS does not allow a deduction for donating any kind of human tissue. However, you can deduct mileage you incur in your volunteer efforts. Similarly, the Canadian Revenue Agency does not
recognize donations of human milk as a tax deduction.
http://www.hmbana.org/downloads/2006Nov_newsletter.pdf

Again, I think it's great that you're donating milk, but I don't want to see you or others get in tax trouble over this.
Angie

[DrSally]

On a related issue, I was a little disappointed on a recent issue of Dr. Phil where he acted totally grossed out about the concept of wet-nursing. He was over the top with his disgust, saying that if he were wetnursed, he would grow up and walk down the street asking, "was she one? Was she one?" (who breastfed him). He did say he was bottlefed (I think) and his wife bottle fed their boys. I felt that his disgust toward wetnursing had an undertone of discomfort with bfing in general (I may be wrong), but this was my read on it.

[Momof3Labs]

That's kind of what I thought, especially when you figure that blood donors don't get a receipt to deduct their donation from their taxes!

[Radosti]

Hmmm... well, too late now. However, the Milk Bank said they talked to their legal department when I called to ask about the letter. And as far as they were concerned, it was tax deductible. So, if I do have an issue, I will pay the difference. Like I said, it was a surprise and I certainly didn't do it for the deduction.

Although, I have been thinking that I'd like to find a local family with a need for my milk the next time around. I missed the personal factor of helping someone. It seemed very detached - I donate milk to the milk bank, someone else gets the milk for their baby. And we never see each other. Don't know. I think it would be nice to donate to just one baby and watch him/her grow big on the milk.