After another day of supporting crying Active Duty breastfeeding mothers 
who are being forced to wean and go to formula due to pending deployment 
and idea hit....

What if we all could coordinate a program at this time to support our 
military moms by getting them access to free donor milk from the HMBA?
During this  war , other organizations have provided services such as dula 
support for our families seperated by the war. What about starting 
a "push" for human milk support and national change by going this route?
  I know its an " out of the box" idea but think of it this way... who is 
our biggest ostrich when it comes to supporting international infant 
health promotion?  Our government! Who , despite all the research, 
continues to only give lip service to the benefits? our government! Who is 
the largest employer of childbearing females here in the US, yet 
consistantly makes no concentrated effort to change or promote work place 
changes to protect our families in this area? Our government! Who is going 
against the research based recommendations to promote optimal infant 
nutrition, refuses to change deployment policies to protect that vital 6 
month- year and forces our service members to utilize a third rate prodect 
( and bear the cost of this decision? Our DOD ( Department of Defense) 
again our government! Who is screaming about rising health care costs but 
ignoring the research that would help lower some of the costs? Our 
government.  Who is one of the largest voices in World Health issues yet 
fails to support legislation, international poliicies that support our 
families instead of industry lobbiests? our government.Etc, etc, etc!
 Why not then bring some great support, publicity to their plight and 
bring our national level of awareness to the truth that while formula is 
another source of sustaining infant nutrition, it is a third rate product 
based on research.
 In the case of our young women  serving our country and meeting mission 
needs, in dangerous situations, why don't WE take the bull by the horns 
and start shaking the very people who should be supporting their 
employees? 
 It hasen't worked with bringing the forcus to our low income families, 
etc... then what about addressing it in this manner? If the military/ 
government will not make changes to protect the breastfeeding dyad and 
promote infant maternal health for one stinking year shouldn't our public 
also know that? These moms want to do their jobs  but the current rules 
force them to ignore world health recommendations and also bear not only 
the  future life long knowledge that they have no right to protect their 
baby and to top it off, get to pay what? $ 1500 a year in formula costs 
alone for being honorable and meeting mission needs? 
 What a great way we all can help these moms. La Leche, ILCA, etc can 
encourage our non military moms to help with the donation, maybe provide 
or assist in seeking some " grant" money to off set the costs, etc. We 
already have the Ad program for promotion, wouldn't this be an interesting 
spin to put on it?  It also gives the medical community a great pool for 
research in decreasing health risks by using donor moilk, encourages the 
medical community to look more at donor milk for our ill babies, 
encourages some focus on current DOD deployment policies SERVICE WIDE and 
not just one branch at a time and hopefully gives a kick in the pants to 
all government agencies to start providing real support and change instead 
of just lip service

Ok, maybe a crazy idea but..............

Lisa Jones RN IBCLC RLC
who tossed and turned all night because it rips my gut out not being able 
to get the big bosses to provide some real support to our nursing moms.

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