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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