<<I always wonder, in a situation like what is going on now, if there is


anyone encouraging bottlefeeding mothers to suckle their babies, >>

A word from a veteran of Hurricane Andrew in Miami :-)  I was a La Leche
League Leader at the time - one of 5 in the county (all lone Leaders).
Three of the 5 lost their homes in the storm.  I was one of the lucky
two who didn't (the other one being the late Liz Baldwin, who at the
time lived in that county.)  For what it's worth:  we tried.  Myself,
one of the "homeless" Leaders (Heidi Agostinho, now IBCLC and currently
Breastfeeding Program Coordinator for WIC in Miami-Dade County), and Liz
worked together to try to impact positively upon the health of the
babies in our community during that time by pushing for breastfeeding as
truly the only safe way to feed them.  I am sad to report that we were
soundly ignored.  I'd like to think we made some impact as we were
allowed to distribute copies of The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding to
women in the hardest hit area - purchased with money donated to our
county League groups for that purpose.

But my conclusion is that in these situations you won't be heard above
the roar of rescuing, assessing damage, emergency management
organizations, etc.  Until lactation professionals get put on the boards
of emergency management groups, until we are there for the planning
stages, until THEY are putting out news releases advising all women
giving birth after these crises to breastfeed, we will not be heard and
those babies will largely be bottlefed.....or breastfed without the
information and support their mothers need.

The other conclusion I drew, the lesson I learned courtesy of Hurricane
Andrew that I have never since forgotten and am grateful for, is this:
the last thing many women want, while struggling to survive in the
aftermath of such a crisis, is to learn a "new" and
seemingly-complicated skill.  What they want is NORMALCY.  For something
familiar to actually work like it's supposed to.  They are not going to
completely change their outlook on life, their bodies, and infant
feeding in the midst of such a crisis.  In short: if breastfeeding isn't
"normal" BEFORE the hurricane hits, it sure as heck isn't going to be
normal AFTER it hits.  

The hope I took from this is that the more I can do day in and day out,
on the "normal" days of my career, to promote, protect and support
breastfeeding as the norm, the more likely women in these situations
will gratefully & naturally turn to breastfeeding when nature blows
their house off its foundation.  Until we can get the powers that be to
listen to us and include us in emergency planning, there's not much more
we can do.  Even after Florida got hit by no less than FOUR hurricanes
last year, even STILL they're not listening to us.  It's like we don't
exist, when it comes to hurricanes.  Sadly so.....

Regina Roig-Lane, BS IBCLC for the Miami-Dade County Department of
Health WIC/Nutrition Program

 


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