Guides › Selling

How to sell your breast milk, start to finish

If you're pumping more than your baby drinks, you're sitting on something people genuinely want. (No baby at home? That page is here.) The whole road, then: hygiene, honesty, pricing, packing and payment, in the order they'll meet you.

1. Get the hygiene boringly right

The pumping routine itself – rhythm, flange fit, keeping it comfortable – is in pumping for a surplus.

Quality is 90% routine. Wash your hands before pumping, wash pump parts after every session, sterilize them daily, and get milk cold within the hour. Freeze bags flat – they stack better, thaw faster, and survive shipping best – and date every single one. Store at the back of a proper freezer, never in the door. Change worn valves while you are at it, because a tired one costs you milk for weeks before anything looks wrong. The full clocks – room temperature, fridge, freezer, thawed – are in how long breast milk keeps.

Buyers will ask about all of this, and the sellers who answer crisply are the ones who get repeat orders.

How to wash your breast pump parts The Milk Bank · a milk bank’s own washing routine, which is the standard a buyer is quietly hoping for. Their donors feed hospital babies; copying how they wash costs you nothing. Tap to play – nothing loads from YouTube until you do

2. Disclose like your reputation depends on it

Because it does. Serious buyers want to know: your diet, caffeine and alcohol habits, whether you smoke or vape, any medications and supplements, your pump-cleaning routine, and when each bag was pumped. Write it all down before you list – including the awkward lines. Candour reads as confidence, and it prices accordingly. And if you are wondering whether the smoking or the prescription rules you out altogether, it almost certainly doesn't – here is what each one actually means. A seller who volunteers "one coffee, mornings only" earns more trust than one who has to be asked.

3. Price without agonising

The market runs $1.50–$4.50 per ounce (about £1.20–£3.50 per fl oz). Start low, deliver well, reprice at five good reviews. The calculator shows you that climb in pounds and dollars. The full logic is in How much is breast milk worth? – the short version is that freshness, screening and track record set your ceiling, and all three are buildable. Screening is the one you can start on before we open: book the panel, keep the certificate, upload it on day one.

4. Decide who you sell to – and own the decision

Demand comes from more directions than most new sellers expect: parents topping up supply, adoptive and surrogacy families, and a reliable market of fitness and other adult buyers who order in bulk. None of it is anyone's business to judge – and none of it obliges you. Decide your audience per listing (families only, or open to all buyers), and hold the line without apology. On MilkMom that setting is enforced by the platform, not by your patience.

5. Pack and ship like a pro

The whole cold-chain recipe fits in one paragraph: styrofoam-lined box, frozen bags packed tight, deep-frozen gel packs, gaps stuffed with paper, 1–2 day tracked service, shipped Monday to Wednesday so nothing sits in a depot over a weekend. The long version – with quantities and carrier notes – is the shipping guide.

6. Handle money like a business, however small

• Never ship before payment is secured, and never accept wire transfers or gift cards – neither is reversible, which is why scammers ask for them.
• Keep records from sale one. Milk money is taxable income in the US and the UK (UK sellers: the first £1,000 a year falls under the trading allowance).
• On MilkMom, buyers pay before you ship and the money is held until they confirm delivery – so the awkward part of dealing with strangers simply isn't your problem.

If you're weighing up whether to start on today's venues or hold out for better ones, where to sell breast milk compares them plainly – and a well-kept stash gives you months of best-quality milk to decide with.

Common questions