First-(unrelated) my daughter is watching a tv show called "Friends" as I
write this and a woman is nursing her baby and all her husband's friends are
asking questions about it.  The dad is really supportive and the spot was
kinda cute.(Now they're talking about tasting EBM.)

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART:
        I just received a call from one of the members of our local
lactation consortium.  It seems that both the senate and the House have
before them bills to either recommend or decide not to recommend that WIC be
put on a Block Grant.  Unfortunately, my memory is poor (especially after my
day at WIC today!!) and I don't remember which house approved it under Block
and which is still undecided-BUT  I THINK IT IS URGENT THAT WE ALL CALL OUR
REPRESENTATIVES AND LET THEM KNOW THE REPRECUSSIONS THAT WILL BE FELT IF THE
BREASTFEEDING PROGRAMS THAT ARE NOW IN PLACE  IN NYS ARE PLACED UNDER THE
BLOCK AND ARE FURTHER CUT!!   Please let them know that we oppose the Block
granting of all WIC programs and the maintainance of the current
breastfeeding budgets.  It probably is a good idea to mention that if we
invest the money in supporting breastfeeding for the first month of a
baby';s life it will save far more than the cost in savings of $$ for
formula not to mention the tremendous savings in cost benefits in healthy
babies FOR THE LENGTH OF THE CHILD'S LIFE......But of course I am preaching
to the converted!! I have great confidence that you guys will handle this well.

Now if anyone out there knows how to email those reps in ? please post that
info for all of us.
As you can probably tell, I'm not real political but this is really
important and WE REALLY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE HERE.  PLEASE DO THIS TOMORROW
MORNING!!!!

Thanks for all your collective help-and if any of you political activists
have more info-post it here.
Barbara Leshin-Zucker, BA, IBCLC  (and congrats to all you new ones!!)
Highland Mills, NY