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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- The options aren't just breast milk or formula anymore.

These days, women who can't lactate or lose their supply don't have to resort to formula if they're opposed. Online communities and milk banks allow women who can supply extra milk to send their own to the women in need. 

For Holly Gomez, a mother of two who hopes to keep breast feeding her youngest baby until he wants to stop, continuing lactation allows her to help those who can't. But, what Gomez considers a good deed has many people riled up.

"So many people, it's so taboo for them and it's just not," Gomez said. "One hundred years ago, that's what happened. If Mom couldn't nurse, you pulled Grandma in. You pulled in the Auntie, and if there wasn't the Auntie, you pulled in the lady down the street - literally! It was a paid position - wet nurse."

What has critics worried, however, is the risks of informal feeding - that's when a woman will feed another woman's child directly or pump and send the milk without stringently cleaning it first.

Local physician Dr. Robert Vogt said the risk is small, but it's still there.

"Having a woman breastfeed your baby for you isn't bad, but it'd be like getting a transfusion from another person directly, and if you didn't know all their history, you could have some risk there."

Vogt said some of those risks include getting milk from an HIV positive woman, or spreading Hepatitis B. Hepatitis isn't possible to spread through milk, but only other bodily fluids.

"I think in our society it's a little awkward and unusual," Vogt said.  "But it's still the preferred nutritional food for the baby."

Back in December, the FDA released a statement about sharing breast milk.  It states, " When human milk is obtained directly from individuals or through the Internet, the donor is unlikely to have been adequately screened for infectious disease or contamination risk.  In addition, it is not likely that the human milk has been collected, processed, tested or stored in a way that reduces possible safety risks to the baby."

The other option is getting milk through a milk bank.  For many new parents, this can be difficult financially. Depending on the bank and state, bank milk, which has been stringently cleaned and checked for all diseases, will cost about $3.50 to $4.50 an ounce.

Gomez said she prefers to avoid these because she knows she's healthy, and she knows most parents can't afford the steep fee.

"You can ask the mother to see her medical records. I show people, 'look, this is the Hepatitis test the doctor did when I was pregnant. There's no HIV, no Hepatitis. If you want current, we can go get some blood work done,'" Gomez said.  "It's not hard."

For more information on breast milk sharing, Gomez recommends web sites like TheLeakyB@@b or Human Milk 4 Human Babies.