Dear Lactnetters,

Winnie wrote:

"... It has been estimated that a minimum of $3.6 billion would be saved
if current US exclusive breastfeeding rates increased to at least 50% at 6
months.
Participation in WIC prenatal and peer counseling programs is
associated with an increased rate of breastfeeding initiation.
Women who attend WIC breastfeeding support groups are twice as
likely to plan to breastfeed as those who do not.
Peer counseling assistance helps mothers initiate and maintain
breastfeeding especially in the early weeks and months as mothers are
confronted with predatory infant formula advertising,
promotions, and hospitals that are not friendly to breastfeeding
that seek to undermine breastfeeding mothers and drive them to formula feed.

Formula feeding is best for mothers who are unable to breastfeed,
not as a first choice for infant feeding.

Below is an article on the amendment

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/15/virginia-foxx-proposes-to_n_877750.html

Back to Winnie's comments-warning, if you have high blood pressure, do not
read
the comments below the article!!  The first one that came up when I read it
was
one of the most absurd i have ever read.  The person, in effect, said she
(or
he) had seen plenty of animals who did not need help to nurse their infants,
so
why should we spend all that money to help humans.  They should just do
it. (If
only it were that easy for everyone.)  Get a clue!!!"

I have also heard of plenty of mammals who do NOT nurse their infants -- in
zoos, where the mother animals are under artificial conditions that raise
stress hormones and inhibit lactation and nurturing hormones, and where they
do not get to observe other mother animals nurturing their young.  How many
times have we seen birth announcements from a local zoo, with an
accompanying picture of a human bottle feeding the new arrival because the
mother rejected it (or didn't know what to do with it)?!

I was a *lucky* WIC client in the 80's who also happened to meet a LLL
Leader through a mutual friend halfway through my pregnancy.  She and the
other LLL moms were very encouraging, lowering my stress, and were wonderful
examples of how to breastfeed.  But those meetings were only monthly, and
only sought by moms who already knew in their gut that infant
nutrition=breast milk and that support was important.  Peer Counselors are
placed where WIC clients expect to find infant nutrition.  They can afford
the time to help moms many hours a week because they are paid -- and at
bargain rates for what they offer, IMHO!

Ruth Piatak, BA, MS
La Leche League Leader
WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor
Tulsa, Oklahoma
214-886-1218 (cell)
918-585-9114 (home)
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