Friday Feature: Is Breastmilk VEGAN?

I’m tackling a doozy today from a friend and co-worker at the hospital I work at. Honestly, it was this box of Plant-Based formula that really caught my attention. And then Jamie asked the question: “If you’re a vegan, is your breastmilk considered vegan too?” 

It’s so interesting to me how things are marketed. Tell me—if you’re a practicing vegan—would this make you look twice?

It did me, and I’m not vegan! Pretty clever way to market to a certain population!

Look at our cutie, Jamie

It’s a great question! Is your breastmilk vegan if you’re a vegan?

And from that question, it really got the ball rolling with questions of vegans marketing their breastmilk as vegan. Would there be a place for marketed “vegan breastmilk”? Given the milk banks around the country–are they differentiating breastmilk donated from vegans versus breastmilk donated from non-vegans?

This subject interests me for a couple of different reasons. The main one being that I have a vegan daughter. If she chooses to breastfeed her baby (um, she better! ha!) will her breastmilk be sufficient to grow her babies? The answer is YES! 

Breastmilk from a woman who is vegan is going to be nutritionally good for baby—however, a vitamin B-12 supplement should be taken if doing so. This may be a supplement that most vegans are already using, but if not, this would be an important supplement to add. As always, we encourage you to talk with your physician when making these decisions for both you and your baby.

As I was digging into this research, an interesting article came up from 10 years ago about Alicia Silverstone and her vegan breastmilk sharing initiative. You can read that here.

The answer to if your breastmilk is vegan? Well, yes…technically breastmilk IS vegan. You can find many research articles to support and some very deep thoughts on whether or not breastfeeding is something practicing vegans can back. Such an interesting topic!

What I want to make sure my vegan knows is how to breastfeed and support her vegan lifestyle. It can be done and may even cause less issues with gas and colic. A vegan breastfeeder produces milk with a decreased amount of lactose because her diet contains no dairy products.

Can I throw you all for a loop? Mom’s breastmilk contains lactose whether they consume dairy or not. So when you look at that plant-based formula without lactose? It may be just exactly what your baby needs if your pediatrician has determined a lactose intolerance. That’s a subject for another day…this is getting too technical! And yes, vegans—your breastmilk is vegan!