UCF researchers studying 400 Florida women sharing breast milk

Nursing your baby: For new moms, especially working moms, the pressure to give their babies the best nutrition possible can be overwhelming.

Action News Jax’s Letisha Bereola is a new mom herself. She got a look inside a local milk sharing program to see how it works and if it's safe.

Nursing can foster a special bond between mother and child.

"To know that I was in control of what nutrients my child was able to consume and just know that I was providing that for all three of our children, it was empowering," said Bridgette Bryan.

But breastfeeding can also be exhausting and challenging for working moms like Ally Frank.

"If you don't use it, you lose it," Frank said.

Which is what happened when Frank went back to work; then, "Mom Guilt" set in.

"Because of mommy blogs and your friends and ‘OK, everyone else is still breastfeeding, I'm not,’ almost like a ‘what's wrong with me?’ situation goes through your mind," Frank said.

But more and more, women are starting to rely on each other to help fill the gap.

Right now, two researchers at the University of Central Florida are conducting one of the first milk sharing studies in the country, surveying nearly 400 Florida women who have shared their milk.

"They really feel that breastmilk is a precious substance and since they have an access of it they want other babies to benefit from it," said Beatriz Reyes-Foster, UCF Asst. Professor of Anthropology.

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Here's a look at their findings:

-89 percent of their milk sharing moms are white

-64 percent are college educated

-91 percent reported donating to a friend

The FDA recommends against peer to peer milk sharing because of the risk of contamination.

Despite the warning, Dr. Shannon Carter, UCF Assoc. Professor of Sociology, said the majority of their participants believes it is safe.

"They don't have a lot of faith in the FDA and I think some of them view the FDA recommendation against milk sharing as sort of a mistrust of women's bodies. And they trust their bodies and they trust their friends and their friends’ bodies," Carter said.

It’s an emerging trend with little to no regulation, but to many new moms, the benefits of breast milk are something to share.

"If I could get some of that liquid gold for him, I would be like, ‘hey give a little bit extra over here,’" Frank said.

Donated milk is also used to help babies in neonatal intensive care units. Action News Jax also visited the only milk bank in Florida in Orlando and nearly 130,000 ounces of milk has been shared.

Cox Media Group