Hi Barbara,
I too, have done legislative work (one bill passed, 2 have not to date, see below), written countless letters to the editor of the local paper, given talks to at hospital pediatrician's section meetings, helped teach lactation conferences, gotten one local facility certified as Baby Friendly, taught breastfeeding to a local school for homebirth midwives, and written lactation articles for the hospital's perinatal newsletter. Some of this work has been paid, a lot volunteer.
One thing that I would love to learn more about is:
how is your lactivist group organized? how many of you are there? Are you all credentialed health workers, or a combination of lay and professional? When your group meets, do you focus on activist projects, or mutual support, or combine these 2 functions? How often do you meet? Does anyone get paid time by their institution to be there, or is it strictly volunteer (which gives members more freedom)?
I ask all this b/c we used to have a breastfeeding task force here in our area. For the first few years, we were more task-oriented, but also served a "support group" function for the inevitable need to debrief about tough situations and cases from work. As the years passed, the group did fewer projects, and became more of a support group, which is why I lost interest. I've had a hard time generating much interest among local lactation-minded folks for legislative work, so I've cooperated with people from other parts of my state. Any ideas on creating a team for this are MOST welcome!
Thanks to you and to everyone else who carries the torch --
Martha Johnson RN IBCLC
Eugene OR
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 9:35 AM
To: Johnson, Martha (Lactation-SHMC)
Subject: Re: how to be a local lactivist
Hi Martha,
Glad to share. I hope you will share some of your great ideas with the list
as well:) Keep on keeping on. I know it makes a difference.
B.
Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com
PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Johnson, Martha (Lactation-SHMC)" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Barbara Wilson Clay" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 10:21 AM
Subject: RE: how to be a local lactivist
> hi Barbara,
> These ideas are brilliant, thanks for sharing, I love the Hero Award!
> Martha Johnson RN IBCLC
> Oregon lactivist, author of SB 783, which required all Oregon employers to
make accommodations from breastfeeding moms in the workplace (passed OR
Senate 22-6, never made it to the House floor,like ya'll in Texas we'll be
back in 2005 with another bill!)
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barbara Wilson Clay [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2003 7:33 AM
> Subject: how to be a local lactivist
>
>
> Someone from NY emailed me privately for ideas about how to be an
effective
> local activist with little money. My reply to her was rather detailed, so
> am going to share it here.
>
> We are not a demonstration project for the Ad Council. There isn't one in
> the whole state of Texas. What we did was have 4 of our members
participate
> in the conf. call for the media training (many other Texas lactivists also
> participated). Our Central Texas Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Bfg
> Coalition works with very little budget, but always have found that we can
> work SMARTER not more expensively if we put our minds to it. For World
Bfg
> Week we always give an award. It's called the Hero award, and is
presented
> to an individual whose contribution to bfg in the past year has been
> significant. We have presented it to 2 neonatologists (in diff. years)
who
> founded the Milk Bank here, and once to a State Legislator, Glen Maxey,
who
> pushed thru a bill to obtain Medicaid funding for donor milk. We get local
> or even state-wide dignitaries to present the award (which increases the
> prestige and involves them in bfg support). Last year the mayor of Austin
> presented; the previous year the State Health Commissioner. How do you
get
> them to do this? You call them on the phone and ask. It's surprisingly
> easy -- particularly when you promise them some nice media exposure. This
> isn't hard to get if you plan for it. We stage the event on the steps of
> the state capitol, write and fax press releases a few days prior to the
> event (which always gets us at least one tv camera) and we try to get one
of
> our members invited onto a local tv or radio talk show. The award is a
> simple plaque that costs maybe $30. The volunteer effort is, of course,
> expensive in terms of donated time.
>
> We have a strategy to try to garner one media plug for bfg each quarter of
> the year. For example, in May, in honor of Mother's Day, we give bouquets
> of flowers (donated) to several people around the community whose support
of
> bfg deserves recognition. Examples: A hospt. nurse/midwife (a Lactnet
> member:) who created a lactation center in a hospt. that had never
> previously had one, a nurse who hung bfg art in her unit, a WIC clinic
that
> serves poor bfg women. We write press releases about the awarding of the
> bouquets. This year we had tv coverage for one of the presentations that
> made it to the evening news. We participated in the Oct. Quintessence Bfg
> Challange, again garnering tv coverage.
>
> We lobby for bfg at our Capitol. Our strategy is to have at least one
> piece of bfg legislation before our legislature each session (every 2
yrs).
> We love it when we get something passed, but that isn't the main point.
We
> want the lege to be familiar with bfg as a public policy issue, and this
> gives us a chance to educate. We have a committee that visits to talk to
> aides and sometimes even the representatives. During our visits we give
our
> a packet (as attractive and memorable as we can make them. We hand out
> short White Papers with "talking points".
>
> We follow up with in person thankyous. Just last week, 5 of us spent an
> afternoon going into about 27 offices in the state house and the mayor's
> office to deliver coffee mugs filled with candy. We had the coffee mugs
> printed with our logo: Leaner, Brighter, Healthier Little Texans Through
> Breastfeeding. We also printed up a photo of a beautiful baby (child of
one
> of our members) wearing a bfg t-shirt sitting on the inlaid brass Lone
Star
> on the marble floor under the rotunda in the Capitol building -- a very
> recognizable locale for any Texan. This is our Lone Star Baby, and we
wrote
> our accompanying "thank you for supporting bfg" notes on that card to go
> with the candy-filled mugs. The staffers were delighted. This was not
> particularly expensive to stage, several hundred dollars, and we have
cards
> and mugs left over to sell to raise more funds.
>
> We have a website, www.hmhbcentx.org and you may get a lot of ideas there.
> We believe that even a few local lactivists can make a big noise if they
> brainstorm and strategize. We have more fun planning stuff, and if we had
> any money, we'd be dangerous:)
>
> Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
> Austin Lactation Associates
> LactNews Press
> www.lactnews.com
> PLEASE NOTE NEW EMAIL ADDRESS: [log in to unmask]
>
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