Human Milk

When human milk circulates

This project explores how human breast milk circulates through both non-commercial and commercial channels, shaped by socio-technical devices such as social media. It investigates how milk is shared, stored, and transformed beyond breastfeeding, including alternative uses like cooking or skincare. The study also examines emerging “bio-communities” and the role of biotech companies in milk commodification.

This project focuses on the circulation of human milk. In recent years, these circulations have become more complex. They can now take place across space and time, and outside women's bodies (or even without their bodies, thanks to the promise of synthetic milk), thanks to specific socio-technical devices. These devices allow donors and recipients to connect, for example on social media, to extract milk other than through suckling by a newborn, to store milk, to convert it from liquid to solid or powder form to facilitate its distribution, etc.

In this context, the starting hypothesis of this project is as follows: taking into account these socio-technical devices, such as social media, which we will focus on given their importance, is essential to understanding the circulation of human breast milk since the 19th century. Admittedly, the use of social networks as a place for exchange and discussion on breastfeeding is relatively well documented. Nevertheless, few studies have been carried out in France on the use of these networks to give/share milk or to discuss alternative uses to breastfeeding. Hence this project, which proposes to analyze, on the one hand, the non-commercial circulation of milk.

Research will be conducted among groups and/or forums, not only on breast milk sharing groups, but also on groups where knowledge is shared on uses of milk other than breastfeeding (cooking recipes, cream, skincare, jewelry, etc.). The question of creating a “bio-community” via social networks will be raised. On the other hand, the commercial circulation of milk will also be studied. This will concern sales (in France or other countries) from individual to individual, and the sale of human breast milk by biotechnology companies.