5 Places To Buy Breast Milk Jewellery In South Africa

A very popular product for moms is breast milk jewellery. Breastfeeding is a magical time for new moms. Not only does breast milk have an array of benefits for both mom and baby, nursing is also an excellent bonding experience. This is a unique experience that you can treasure in your heart forever. Breastfeeding comes with certain challenges and not all moms can breastfeed due to medical issues and other reasons.

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Keepsake Breast Milk Jewellery To Celebrate Being A Mom

For some moms it can be emotional when the time comes for their babies to be weaned off the breast and to be exclusively bottle-fed or transition to a solids-only diet. However, there is a way to commemorate your breastfeeding journey and create a keepsake that will remind you about this special time or any other precious experience in your parenting journey.

Breast milk jewellers can create a unique, handmade and specially crafted jewelry piece that feature breast milk, locks of hair, umbilical cord, placenta, and more. The inclusions are professionally preserved and hand-casted into your selected jewellery piece.  

Jewellery that celebrates motherhood has gained popularity over the past few years. From push gifts to personalized jewellery with your child’s name (monogram or initials), there are an array of keepsakes that commemorate your role as a mom. Breastmilk jewellery is a personal memento for celebrating your breastfeeding experience.

While the idea might sound a tad unconventional, it is nothing new, and many moms buy breast milk jewellery, which is something tangible to remind them of this special bonding time between them and their babies and something that they can actually wear.

What Is Breast Milk Jewellery

Breast milk jewellery usually features an accent centre piece or stone that contains mother’s breast milk. You will find numerous Etsy sellers online that offer jewelry pieces containing breast milk. The prices vary between $50 to $500. Several mompreneurs like Precious Mammaries, Keepsake Moms, and Spiral Tree have started their own businesses, making stunning pieces of keepsake jewellery.

Breast milk jewellery items are sometimes mistaken for opal because milk has a similar creamy colour to the October birthstone. However, the colour might be different, with some pieces appearing more yellow than others, contingent on the colour of your breast milk. Some jewellers might add a hint of shimmer to give the piece a glittery finish.

The art of breast milk jewellery initially began as a worldwide trend during 2014, and it is a beautiful way of commemorating this special experience with your baby. There are really talented breast milk jewellery suppliers in South Africa that make truly exceptional pieces, each with their own aesthetic appeal according to the personal style preferences of clients. Breast milk jewellery is often referred to as memorial jewellery with an accent stone that is made up from a mother’s breast milk.

Not many people will recognise it as breast milk jewellery and will think that it is an opal due to the similarities in appearance. Other “ingredients” used in keepsake jewellery are things like cremated ashes, umbilical cord, locks of hair, and placenta, to name a few.

How Is Breast Milk Jewellery Made?

Many people might be put off at first when they hear about breast milk jewellery. And they are probably wondering if the milk will go bad or start smelling. When the preservation process is done properly, it will not smell. However, if done by an amateur and incorrectly, the chances of bacterial growth, rotting, and discolouration are likely.

The process of making breast milk jewellery begins with about an ounce of breast milk that undergoes a process of extreme heating and cooling, with a chemical that is used for preservation. This results in the structure of the breast milk changing to create a solidified mass which is then made into a stone that will be the centre piece in necklaces, earrings, rings, and bracelets.

The colour of the stone will have an iridescent creamy-white appearance. The precise colour of the stone depends on the colour of your breast milk. Some might have a yellowish tinge. Some jewellers add a shimmering layer on the top surface of the stone to give it a bit of a sparkle.

DIY Breast Milk Jewellery Kits

If you have your heart set on a keepsake jewellery piece but can’t afford to have it done by a professional, you can buy a DIY breast milk jewellery kit. The kit contains everything that you will need to make your own breast milk jewellery at home. But just keep in mind that the risks of discolouration, bacterial growth, and rotting exist if the preservation process does not go as planned.

However, most kits include an instructional video and/or handbook that guides you every step of the way when making your own breast milk jewellery piece. Some kits have enough materials to craft multiple jewellery pieces with a single sample of breast milk. So, you are getting your money’s worth.

How Do You Get The Breast Milk There?

A sample of fresh or frozen breast milk is sent to the supplier. The milk must be placed in a ziplock bag with the air removed and then placed inside a sealed container to be sent off via courier. You can check the website or contact the supplier about specifics regarding sending of your milk.

How Long Will a Breast Milk Jewellery Piece Last?

Milk stones are not as robust as natural gemstones, however, they can last many years if you take proper care of them. It is recommended to add a new topcoat on the jewellery piece each year to preserve it for longer. The breast milk stone is solid, therefore durable enough to last under standard wear.

Care Tips For Breast Milk Jewellery:

• Avoid submerging your jewellery piece in water.
• Keep the jewellery piece away from essential oils, hair products, harsh chemicals, and make up.
• Avoid bathing or swimming with your jewellery on, prolonged exposure to water can cause discolouration.
• Take off jewellery before bedtime or exercising.
• When you’re not wearing it, store it in a dark place.
• Never store the jewellery near excessive heat or in direct sunlight.

What Other Baby Keepsake Jewellery Can You Buy?

There is an array of baby keepsake jewellery selections at your disposal. These jewellery pieces are made for remembering those fleeting years with your new baby. They make exceptional family heirlooms that can be passed down for generations. Here are some of the popular ones.

Baby Bracelet

These are commonplace keepsake jewellery pieces for babies and are specially made to fit tiny wrists. They are regularly used for photo sessions, baptisms, and other special occasions.

Baby Feet Pendant

Another popular momento is a pendant that involves tiny baby feet. By engraving the shape of your baby’s feet onto a basic pendant, is a special art piece that can be cherished for years.

Parent-Child Matching Jewelry

Jewellery that matches both the parent and child can be highly meaningful. Engraving each other’s initials and incorporating your favourite gemstone can be a stunning family heirloom to keep close to your heart and pass down to younger generations.

Memory Keychain

If you do not wear jewellery, you can also consider a memory keychain as a viable alternative. There are many ways to customize such a piece, for instance, engraving your initials or adding your baby’s birth month gemstone, the options are endless.

Photo Locket

One of the most popular keepsake jewellery types are photo lockets. It is a type of pendant, typically oval or heart-shaped where you can store a tiny photo. Photo lockets are perfect for all occasions, but they are mostly treasured as memorials.

Hair Jewellery

Many people use a lock of a loved one’s hair in jewellery to remember someone special who has passed on. You can also use a lock of your baby’s hair and have it preserved for eternity. There are special pendants and lockets that are designed to hold onto hair in a safe and discreet way.

Where To Buy Breast Milk Jewellery In South Africa

Megan Goldner Designs

Megan Goldner Designs specialises in keepsake jewellery, including breast milk jewellery. They offer a variety of jewellery pieces including necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, beads, and charms, as well as keyrings and decor items. They also offer a range of keepsake items for men including cufflinks, tie pins, and more.

All jewellery is handmade by Megan and created with premium materials to ensure the best quality keepsake items.

Get 10% off Megan Goldner Designs keepsake jewellery using coupon code mgd&kaboutjie

Jdbyvanessa Keepsakes

Vanessa Moodley creates stunning pendant and bracelet keepsakes for mothers from breast milk, baby hair, and umbilical cord. These beautiful, high quality jewellery pieces the emotional closeness and bonding that breastfeeding nurtures between mother and child.

Visit her Facebook page Jdbyvanessa Keepsakes to place your order or contact her on 062 265 0639.

Spiral Tree

Spiral Tree was founded in 2014 when Melissa Mann, the owner, who was also her sister’s doula, wanted to make something special for her sister, using her placenta to commemorate her pregnancy and birth journey. She researched and experimented to find a way to encapsulate treasured memories in keepsakes and pendants.

Sadly, four days after she gave her sister a locket, she passed away tragically. Melissa was asked by the family to make something special using her sister’s ashes and hair. By making something beautiful and meaningful she found a way to help others while silently grieving on her own. This is how her business began and since then she has made thousands of stunning pieces.

Melissa specialises in making custom made jewellery pieces and keepsakes, using botanicals, ashes, breastmilk, hair, and more. Her prices vary between R850 to R1850.

To place an order download the catalogue and send in your order through the contact form on their website. 

Cherish Me Mama

Cherish Me Mama is another breast milk jewellery South Africa supplier that creates stunning custom-made jewellery pieces that allows you to cherish your parenting journey with your little one. She uses the latest techniques and tools to carefully preserve your breastmilk, your child’s first tooth, fingerprint, footprint to make baby keepsakes that you can treasure forever.

For more information about this company or placing an order, you can visit the Facebook page: Cherish Me Mama : Breastmilk, Handprint and Fingerprint Jewellery | Facebook or contact her on: 0725246917

Milk Lactaction Products

Milk Lactation Products specialises in lactation products and  such as pumps, freezer bags, breastfeeding pillows, lactation & collagen bars, and breastfeeding jewellery.

Celebrate motherhood and your breastfeeding journey by investing in a breast milk jewellery piece. Jewellery is one of the most meaningful ways to honour those special moments in your child’s life.