ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests some considerations about the donation of breastmilk in a multicultural context, where different meanings of milk intersect and confront each other. The human milk bank is a “place” where mothers who produce a large amount of breastmilk can donate it. The bank’s milk is used for premature babies hospitalized in newborn intensive care units and babies with particular illnesses, when their own mother’s milk is not available. Milk donation can be conceptualized in the debate about blood and organ donation. In this regard, Dei proposes a comprehensive analysis of the main works about blood donation, deepening the aspects of gift, social networks, imagination, and social use of blood donation. The topic of milk donation raises interesting issues over the range of meanings that those involved give to this bodily substance. As many scholars underline, milk kinship can be viewed as a strategy of managing social relations by limiting or creating milk ties.
