Jennifer,

As a US Navy veteran (I had my firstborn while on active duty and pumped for
over a year) and a LLL Leader who works with Active Duty moms on a regular
basis I would second what Nikki said.  Your mom does not have a leg to stand
on in regards to her upcoming separation from her child.

The military is not at all supportive of breastfeeding mothers.  The DOD at
this point does NOT have a policy in place at all for breastfeeding.
Mothers are returned to full working status after 42 days of maternity
leave, and then is worldwide deployable at the 4 month mark.  It is up to
each and every commanding officer to decide on a case-by-case basis when,
where and how he will deploy his/her breastfeeding mothers. Breastfeeding is
just not a priority for the military.  Formula is considered just as good
and frees the mother to perform her mission.  There is not any type of
hardship separation or discharge that she could use either. Unless she can
prove irreversible harm to herself or her baby by NOT breastfeeding (highly
unlikely) she wont be able to get a deferment, especially not now that the
child is 12 months.  Wanting to breastfeed your child, give your baby the
best preventative medicine in the world, is not a reason to shirk your duty
to the US Government.  I know it sounds cold, but that is how the military
sees it.  Once you take that oath-you belong to them.  There is a saying the
Navy..."If we wanted you to have a family, we would have issued you one in
your seabag".  That about sums it up!  Here are a couple of links here to
papers written about active duty mothers and breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding in the military: Part I. Information and resources provided to
service women. Mil Med. 2003 Oct;168(10):807-12

Breastfeeding in the military: Part II. Resource and policy considerations.
Mil Med. 2003 Oct;168(10):813-6

This one isn't yet online-but in the Oct/Nov 2004 issue of Leaven there was
a fantastic article about helping active duty mothers to breastfeed.

As an aside I am currently in contact with a mother in Iraq who was deployed
when her baby was 7 months old and exclusively breastfeeding.  She was
heartbroken at leaving and worried about how to dry up her milk.  She wanted
to breastfeed until the last possible moment to savor every little bit until
she had to leave, knowing it would be harder to dry up once she left (and
much more abrupt for her little one-we weighed the pos and cons) We
discussed every possible avenue of weaning/not weaning, pumping to maintain
even a little milk supply for when she returns...I have stayed in e-mail
contact with her. She took a hand pump to help relieve some of the worst
engorgement, but then had to figure out when/how to pump while in the field.
The conditions over there are horrendous, the sand gets into everything.
She has suffered from a couple of bouts of mastitis, her Dr.s are not
helpful or sympathetic to her situation.  She hates throwing the milk out.
She has no idea when she will return.  She did not want to go, but had
absolutely NO choice in the matter.


I hope this was somewhat helpful to you.

Sweet Nursings,

Robyn Roche-Paull
LLL & CLC San Diego
Union Institute & University MCH:LC student
************************************************************************
Mama to Morgan (8) Siobhan (5) and Tiernan (21 months)
Proud Military Wife to Stephen (10 years)
*************************************************************************
Breastfeeding: An American Family Value

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