Dear Colleagues, I have some extremely bad news. I had hoped soon to tell you of a new plan forged from a wonderful political alliance forged in Texas between the milkbanking community and the Texas legislature. We had a legislator friendly to babies who was going to propose more federal funding (through Medicaid) for donor milk for medically fragile infants whose families lack financial resources. Word of this somehow threatened the power/money interests, and now the United States Department of Agriculture is pulling their current level of funding of donor milk from WIC (which has for 20 yrs provided funds for donor milk in certain cirucumstances). Further, and even more reprehensibly, the USDA has issued a press release (attached below) which implies that donor milk is not safe. This is a deal cut on a golf course and made while standing on the bodies of poor infants. If you are born into a family rich enough or stable enough or supported by good enough institutional breastfeeding support, your premature infant doesn't have to get NEC. If you are a low income family, part of the WIC formula feed-lot, statistically more likely to be premature, statistically more likely to develop obesity, diabetes, and asthma, have we got a deal for you. Folks, it ain't free, it ain't fair, and it just isn't nice. Read it and weep, and then start writing letters and making what ever kind of noise you can make. WIC TO HALT USE OF BANKED HUMAN BREAST MILK WASHINGTON, March 1, 2000 The federal WIC program will no longer allow the use of banked human breast milk for some infants with special needs, Agriculture Under Secretary Shirley K. Watkins said today. In the past, WIC has allowed banked breast milk as a substitute for WIC-eligible formulas in some special cases. But Under Secretary Watkins said few infants have needed the milk, and no federal health and safety standards exist to govern human milk banks. In addition to the lack of federal standards, she said, there are no provisions for mandatory pathogen, drug, toxin and allergen screening, and banked breast milk must be pasteurized, which may cause it to lose some of its intrinsic nutritive value. "Over the last eight to 10 years, WIC has served millions of infants, and perhaps 23 have needed this milk," Watkins said. "This is a small niche that WIC has filled, but there are a number of concerns that now cause us to discontinue providing this benefit." Considering all these factors could put WIC infants at risk from possibly contaminated or otherwise unsafe breast milk, Watkins said, and could also place USDA and WIC state and local agencies at risk of liability. Watkins emphasized that the change does not diminish WIC's historically strong commitment to promoting and supporting breastfeeding. "Research has shown that there is no better food than breast milk for a baby's first year of life," Watkins said. "Since a major goal of WIC is to improve the nutritional status of infant, we encourage WIC mothers to breastfeed their infants whenever possible." WIC officially named the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children provides supplemental food, nutrition education and access to health care for more than 7 million pregnant women, new mothers, and infants and children up to age 5. ### ____ Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSEd, IBCLC Austin Lactation Associates, Austin, Texas http://www.lactnews.com *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html