increase breast milk supply

Donated breast milk comes from healthy women who pump out more than they use, whether they are weaning their own children, or otherwise. Is it possible a woman will starve her baby to sell her breast milk? Not sure, but it's possible, but that's not a meaningful, operational standard. More importantly, I gather that any hospital that uses donated breast milk has nurses, doctors, and other staff who are earning money by feeding and caring for the sick infants. Others have noted in other contexts, why is it that the donors the only ones not allowed to make money off the deal? Why limit breast milk to sick babies? Why not make human breast milk available to anybody willing to pay the price? Many women currently choose not to breastfeed or cannot breastfeed, and they substitute formula. Other women return to work shortly after giving birth, and choose to pump and store breast milk during the day. Why shouldn't they have the opportunity to purchase what they might consider a healthier and/or easier alternative? Women require about 500 calories more a day, and the price of caloric intake is much less than the output value of milk. Let's say the 500 calories cost $5, and a baby drinks 32 oz a day at a risk-adjusted black-market price of $2 an oz. A breastfeeding woman produces about $60 a day in net economic value, excluding the opportunity cost of her time. There are an average of 35% x 4 million = 1.4 million women breastfeeding daily in the US. (This is from an extremely crude linear extrapolation: given 4 million annual births, 70% breastfed at 0 months, 35% breastfed at 6 months, and 0% breastfed at 12 months, the probability of any 0-1 year old being breast fed is 35%). Multiply 1.4 million times 365 times $60 and you find that American women produce, on net, about $30 billion annually in breast milk.