When she’s not getting up at an obscenely early hour to present GMTV, Kate Garraway is getting up at an obscenely early hour to look after her two-year-old daughter Darcey. Somehow, she has also managed to find the time to make Other People’s Breast Milk, a look at the complex, emotive and controversial world of breastfeeding. Specifically, she investigates the pros and cons of cross-feeding, breast-milk donation and wet-nursing by meeting some of the growing numbers of women who share each other’s milk. The people Kate meets include sisters who cross-feed their babies; women who are able to breast-feed even though they have never been pregnant; surrogate mothers who produce two gallons of milk a week for donation; and a cancer sufferer who believes breast milk has cured his condition.

Here, Garraway talks about why she wanted to make this programme, and reveals some of the extraordinary stories she uncovered along the way.

What’s the programme about?
It’s a look at breastfeeding from a whole host of different viewpoints. It looks at everything from communities where people breastfeed each others’ babies to breast milk donation and wet-nursing, and also examines attitudes to breast-feeding in this country. And I go and meet women who are able to produce breast-milk even though they’ve never been pregnant, a mother who believes breast milk saved her child’s life, and a man who takes breast milk as a cure for his cancer.

Was it a programme you wanted to make because of your own experiences as a mother?
Yes, definitely. The whole area of breastfeeding is such a complex one, and so fraught with emotion and misinformation. I was able to breastfeed for the first year, although there were occasions, when I was working, when I was quite happy to give my baby a bottle of formula. But it’s an area that is so interesting for me, having experienced it myself.

What are the benefits of breast-feeding?
It’s simply a matter of the female body being able to produce exactly what a baby needs, and it’s something that science hasn’t been able to perfectly replicate. Formula is fine, of course it is, millions of babies are raised on it, but the combinations of nutrients and antibodies in breast milk make it much the best thing for a baby to take. There is also SOME evidence that babies raised on formula have a higher incidence of obesity and of cancer later in life.

Do you think we have a somewhat prudish attitude to breastfeeding in this country?
Absolutely. It’s the most natural thing in the world, but it can still generate such a strong reaction from people. It’s still seen as something that’s dirty. Yet in other cultures, women can breastfeed each other’s babies, for example, and nobody bats an eyelid.

Is there any evidence that a baby’s own mother is the best person to provide the milk for them?
I think it is likely that nothing is as good for you as the milk provided by your own mother, but as far as alternatives go, the women I spoke to were convinced that breast milk from someone other than your mother is still a much better option than formula. Many people might think it is weird, but they argue it is much weirder to drink cow’s milk, which is, after all, from the breast of another species, than it is to drink it from a woman. I’m not saying that I would have been able to have my daughter fed by someone else if I’d been unable to breastfeed, but it certainly makes a degree of sense.

You said that in the programme you meet women who are able to breastfeed despite having never been pregnant.
Yes, it’s extraordinary. I didn’t know such a thing was possible, but it appears that some women are able to produce milk regardless of pregnancy. Not all women, otherwise we’d all be walking about producing milk all of the time. Of course, not all women are able to breastfeed even when they do have babies.

As you say, breastfeeding can be extremely difficult for some mothers. Do you think that there is too much pressure put on mothers to continue with breastfeeding, when that may be counterproductive?
Yes. One of the things that would certainly help would be if we had a proper system of breast milk banks, where people could donate their milk, and babies in need of breast milk could get it from these banks. If it were men who had to breastfeed as opposed to women, there is a part of me that wonders if something more might have been done about this issue. Very little energy has been put into tackling this, and it’s a real shame, because it would be a really valuable resource.

The life-saving properties of breast milk are also in evidence in the case of the cancer sufferer you meet. What’s the story there?
It’s a man who has prostate cancer, and was told that he would need to have an operation that had a 90 per cent chance of rendering him either incontinent or impotent or both. If he didn’t have the operation, they said he had three months to live. He didn’t have the operation, but instead began taking breast milk. That was nine years ago, and his cancer hasn’t progressed since. At one point, the woman who donates the milk for him was ill, and couldn’t give him the milk for a few weeks, and in that time the number of his cancer cells went up considerably. It’s a remarkable story. He believes that breast milk might actually contain properties that could hold the cure to cancer. I don’t know if that’s true, of course, but I certainly believe it warrants further medical investigation. After all, wouldn’t it be amazing if women were walking around with the cure for cancer literally under their nose!

Other People’s Breast Milk is on Channel 4 at 10pm on Tuesday 9th September.