Sell Your Milk to Join The Movement

This post is a little personal to me. I'm going to try and wrangle my emotions, but I might slip a little. My apologies in advance. I have two sons. One living, and one deceased. My son that passed did so after about two months of life- battling a disease he would never win, that we didn't know he had until after his autopsy was done. He was so tiny, having not only being born at 27 weeks gestation, but also growth restricted due to this disease, he wasn't able to nurse. He was fed by way of a teeny tiny little tube, and my colostrum and breast milk was pushed down it with a tiny syringe. Pumping was a struggle for me, and for many reasons, I had a lot of emotional issues surrounding my pumping and breastfeeding. Breasts were very oversexualized with me as a young child, and there was a huge level of discomfort and personal shame that I had to overcome to produce. While pumping, I had to be completely alone, it had to be silent, and I had to be relaxed- or I would get nothing. Nothing would come out, no matter how much I wanted it to. To add to my struggles, one breast produced much more than the other, and I learned in my next pregnancy that there were cysts blocking the ducts in my right breast. Regardless, my ill son NEEDED my milk, and if I could not produce it, I would have to use donated milk. In my mind, I owed it to him to try. We would do anything for our children, right? For me, that meant getting over myself and my own issues to do it. I pumped religiously. The right side often chapped and bled I pumped so much. My left side picked up the slack and all of a sudden, I had an abundance of milk frozen. I continued pumping- all the while waiting for my son to recover. I never expected that he wouldn't win his battle. Then, one day, he lost. Without going into the details of it, when he passed, it was extremely surreal and the last thing I thought about was what to do with the 40-something odd packs of frozen breastmilk they had in the NICU freezers for him. My dear friend had also had a baby that was just a few months older than my son, and a similar issue was happening for her. She couldn't produce milk well, but she was insistent on feeding him breast milk. I offered her mine. Without a second thought, I called the NICU and arranged for my friend to have my stored milk. If I could not feed my own son with it, then please, please let me feed my friend's son. Please. I NEEDED to. It gave me a sense of peace to know that my milk that I fought so hard with myself to produce was used by someone I love to feed a baby. A little boy. My second son happened, and once again, I was faced with my own issues with breastfeeding. This time, I felt even stronger about trying to feed him myself. Even with my right breast defunct, I fed him as much as I could with my left breast for as long as I could. Many women offered to donate their milk to my son. It was moving and important that the gesture was there. It turned out that he had several sensitivities and we had to be very, very careful with the origin of his milk, and we elected to use formula. It was a difficult decision, not made without a lot of input from his doctors, and not one I choose to defend or debate with any breast is best advocates. I KNOW breast is best. But I chose when I had to- that fed was best. And he thrived. I'm a firm supporter of breast milk for babies, but I also understand that there are reasons one might not be able to breastfeed. I know there are many babies out there that rely on breast milk. Babies like my first son that are tiny little miracles in the NICU, fighting for their lives. When someone encourages a breastmilk donation, I smile. I wish I could produce any at this point, because I would gladly continue to bag it and drop it off at the bank. I encourage any woman that wants to help if they can, to do so in this way. What a beautiful, feminine, strong way to share love with another... to give liquid gold, liquid LIFE to those that may not have access to their own mother's milk. Today, a video was shared with me of Kim Roylance, LuLaRoe mentor extraordinaire, accompanied by her husband where they discusses selling breastmilk to NICUs as a way to earn money to onboard with LuLaRoe debt free. Several emotions here. Why not advise them to sell their eggs or their kidneys while you're crossing into the realm of inappropriate? They speak about how one of their onboards saved $4500 to onboard with LuLaRoe by "selling her breast milk to NICUs" and how amazing an accomplishment it is. First of all, I wasn't aware that any NICUs buy breast milk. Milk has to be given or sold to a milk bank. But please, advise all these women to begin to try and peddle their boob juice to their local NICU just to pad your own bottom line as they struggle to recoup their onboarding fee. I know breast milk donations are always welcome and appreciated, that certainly isn't my issue here, but how much milk do you have to hawk to raise $4500? And if it's that lucrative, why not just do that instead of investing in a company that is about as straight as Elton John? Next, I resent the idea of "selling to help". LuLaRoe has been doing quite a lot of that lately, and where I agree that giving something is better than giving nothing, what happened to just a straight up donation? I mean if this were really selfless giving to help those babies, wouldn't you just GIVE the milk to them? Facebook is riddled with fundraisers for Texas. "Buy this jacket, and I will donate a portion to Texas", but if you have $100 to spend and want to help Texas, why not send $100 to Texas? Those portion of proceed sales always make me cringe. But that's me, and again, something is better than nothing, I guess- but it certainly isn't entirely selfless. I also have a REALLY difficult time with a company or a representative of this company telling me what to do with my body and anything produced by it. When Kim was struggling to stay afloat after her MLM that she owned (a silver company) went belly up with the boom in silver pricing- did she sell her eggs? Her milk? Did LuLaRoe tell her to do that to onboard debt free? NO. Deanne gave her some clothing on consignment. Deanne gave her a little trust. And now look at her- advising you to put your children to work (as young as preschool age) and sell your breast milk to join her team. It is utterly disgusting. Kim, why don't you loan them the onboarding money instead of telling women what to do with their bodies? Why is such a personal decision something you feel is a topic that is so very much your right to discuss? I don't know what's worse... the company owner carting women to Tijuana for weight loss surgery or the company's top leader telling them to peddle pumped milk to onboard. The whole thing is just a reach far into the realm of none of your damn business and should stay none of your damn business. Please, whatever you do, Kim... don't venture into the realm of selling your advice- because it sucks. LuLaRoe often ventures well beyond lines that a company should not cross- from giving advice on how much inventory to order, to how much money one can expect to earn, and in what amount of time- right down to involving your whole family in your "business"- sending your children door to door, standing outside Target and selling leggings from your trunk, to targeting elderly homes in effort to gain income from the aging and often attention starved residents, and now this. When do you stop crossing lines, LuLaRoe? When do you put out a guide to your leadership about what is acceptable and what is just poor taste and unacceptable to do in business? I keep waiting to update my readers on the steps you've taken to class up your "haute" company, but then I remember that just as common sense is only common if you have some- class can only be taught if you've got some yourself.