Abstract
In this research note, we call attention to human milk donation being essentially omitted from the philanthropy literature and bodily gifting research. We focus here on human milk donations for infant feeding through nonprofit milk banks. We argue that its omission is due to two main factors: (a) the incoherence of defining human milk donation and the challenges to its regulation and (b) its consideration as care work and the characteristics of the milk donor identity. We end with avenues for future research in this area.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 916-927 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2021.
Funding
We thank the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments throughout the review process. The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Keywords
- bodily gifting
- donor identity
- female philanthropy
- human milk banks
- human milk donation