Yes the ability to breastfeed one's baby/toddler is a true advantage during challenging weather/natural disasters. I used to mention this at our LLL's advantages of breastfeeding meetings. Once a mom called me on it, how often did that really happen? My daughter was 6 weeks old when the blizzard of '77 hit. The weather people hadn't a clue (what else is new?) and had originally forcasted 2-4 inches. My husband went off to work and I was home with 2 1/2 year old Evan and Larisa. We had moved into our new home 2 weeks prior to her birth. I knew no one in the neighborhood. As the weather got worse, I got very nervous. I kept wondering what I would do if we lost power, how would I keep the kids warm, what would I feed Evan and myself. I had myself pretty well in panic mode(hormones must have been raging). I decided that I would make a safe warm haven and hung up blankets over all the windows in the living room, shut the doors to the rest of the house, gathered all the sleeping bags, quilts and afaghans. I heated up soup and put it into a thermos, made some sandwiches and settled back to wait for the impending disaster. Then the phone rang. My friend Lori, who delivered her second son 4 days before Larisa was born, was crying hysterically. Seems she saw the same weather report that I had (and most of the New Englanders) and thought, "I'll go get formula when my husband gets home this afternoon." She wanted to know what she should do, did I have any info on how to make infant formula? Well, of course not! I did suggest that she put him to the breast to see if there was any milk there. I also told her to call the peds and the hospital to see what they would suggest. The next afternoon the ambulance followed the plows to her house. Justin was hospitalized for almost a week for severe dehydration and seizures. And to think that I never ever once worried about my baby and what I would feed her. I'm sure that the list members have tons of survival breastfeeding stories. I would love to hear some! Ellen Penchuk, IBCLC *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] 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