Jennifer,

I'm so sorry to hear your story about not being allowed to bring your baby
with you to work at WIC, on the days when you teach breastfeeding
classes/support group/coalition meetings! I think that this would probably
have been the case at the WIC office where I used to work, too, for the same
"reasons" that were given to you. It's sad, for you and your baby and the
women you teach; I should think that they would be delighted to have a real
live baby for demonstration purposes - lots of folks might have had to pay
extra for that little bonus!

So do you have any recourse, or is it just a done deal? Is there any little
nugget of good that you can find here? I guess the only thing I can think of
is that you will have all that much more empathy and understanding for the
many WIC clients you work with who face the same kinds of restrictions when
they return to work. But that doesn't take away the sting for you, does it?

Something kind of similar (although just aggravating, not nearly so sad!)
happened a year or two ago when I was still at WIC: one of my daughters
wanted to volunteer at a couple of WIC clinics/month, reading to kids
waiting in the clinic. THis whole plan was arranged by my daughter, her
teacher at school, and the nutritionist who handles volunteers - I didn't
even know about it till it was all set up and the nutritionist told me!
Anyway, my director went ballistic about it; apparently there is a health
department policy about employees' children not being allowed to be "with
them" at work, and my director was afraid that the dreaded "other employees"
(i.e. the Public Health nurses, who happen to be my dearest and best friends
in the whole wide world) would perceive this is being "day care" for my
daughter (age 16 at the time!)and want to have their children hang out at
work with them too! Ya gotta laugh at that one!

Anyway, my sympathies - and feel free to grieve about it as long as you need
to!

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY

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