I have been reading an interesting book called "Fresh Milk: THe secret life of breasts" by Fiona Giles. It is a compilation of stories about breastfeeding and breasts.

One of the stories is of a woman who in 1987 advertised for a wet nurse to feed her daughter while she was attending uni classes. The baby wouldn't take a bottle, the Mum didn't like expressing and wasn't able to have the baby brought to her for feeds and so she wanted a wet nurse to be able to feed her. She got 4 applicants, but none of them wanted to be paid. After interviews she chose one of the women, and she wet nursed the infant for the term of her studies.

Another section in the book discusses the value of breastmilk. Based on 1992 Australian figures, an economist estimated that breastmik was worth approximately $50 a litre.

The book also stated that Norway is the only country to include human milk output in its annual reports on national food production.