People Drank Breast Milk Lattes at the Burning Man Festival

Bryan Michalek | September 8, 2017
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Every year, thousands of people travel to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada to attend the Burning Man festival to engage in a whole mess of oddities and activities. This year many people got to try human breast milk. 

Yes, breast milk.

The Burning Man festival adheres to a set of 10 Principles, one of which being "to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources." One attendee took this to heart and started giving out her breast milk to other festival-goers. 

Miki Agrawal, who also happens to be the co-founder of the period underwear company Thinx, was in the news earlier this year after a former employee accused her of sexual harassment. The accusation included taking things too far in the office, discussing sex, groping female employees, and attending video conferences naked. The lawsuit was settled confidentially

In an Instagram post, Agrawal showed herself in a Burning Man getup while also donning what looks to be a breast milk pumping top.

Screen Shot 2017-09-08 at 4.03.07 PM

In the post, Agrawal writes: 

I pumped my breasts every three hours at @burningman and gave away most of my milk. Some people downed a whole four ounces hoping for a hangover cure. Some wanted it for their coffee to make lattes. So many were excited and curious to try it. I drank some too when I ran out of water, it tastes like sweet coconut milk!

So many people told me that they had no idea that I had to keep pumping every three hours because they didn't know that breasts would become engorged and super painful if they were not pumped - nature's way of keeping mama and baby working together :-) It made me realize that most people (including me before I had Hiro) know very little about motherhood and birth and post birth and that this needs to be mandatory learning for all humans.

Every human has been birthed and raised somehow and yet even the smartest people have no idea what this process looks like. Nobody learns how to become a parent, let alone a good one. Time to change this! Great parenting can change the world! More conversations about this soon! #burningman#burningman2017"

To the haters on Twitter, Agrawal told The Washington Post that she believes it is time to have "a greater conversation about, why is it uncomfortable to talk about pumping? Or to have an adult try it because they tasted it like 35 years ago and are like, 'I forgot what it tasted like, let me try it again,'"

"It's about supporting women, period," Agrawal added.

This isn't the first time that breast milk has been dolled out at the festival. In fact, it happens a lot more than you might've guessed. Unfortunately for this crowd of drinkers, the milk doesn't really have much nutritional value. To add to that, breast milk may also transmit infectious diseases, and many experts have warned against drinking breast milk that hasn't been tested or certified.

Unfortunately, Agrawal is unphased by that information and plans to continue the practice. 

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