Wu Yanxian helps mothers in China guarantee safe milk for their babies – not by buying foreign infant formula overseas but by providing breast masseuses to stimulate their milk production right at home.
The rise of the Chinese breast masseuse is just one of the many ways that the market has responded to the tainted infant formula crisis that has left millions of mainland mothers reluctant to feed domestic milk powder to their only offspring.
Some have turned to infant formula made from goat milk, others are pinning their hopes on buffalo lactation. Many are breastfeeding longer than they would ideally want to, and some are even buying human breast milk online, for about $2 a bag on the online trading platform Taobao.