I can understand the concern that a vocal few LCs have about Pro Bono
workers. (BTW, the term “Pro Bono” is Latin for “For Good.”) We want to be
taken seriously and professionally. We need to be accountable. None of
these needs are diametrically opposed to helping people with little or no
money from my point of view.

    But, where will poor and low-income women go for Lactation help? Simply
not thinking about poverty or trying to convince oneself it does not exist
will not erase it Neither will attempting to blame the poor for their own
situation. (I.e. “If they wanted the help bad enough, they would find the
money.”) No, many poor women will NOT find the money. It simply isn’t
there. Some women (many in fact) are in situations where they have no
control of and no access to “their husband’s money.”  We can talk until we
are blue in the face about the money they will “save” if they breastfeed,
but if they don’t HAVE the money to pay for a Lactation visit or a pump
rental, and see no way in the near or distant future they will have it,
they and their babies may have to resort to the “free baby milk” at the WIC
clinic. I, for one, will not allow this to happen.  Not to anyone who seeks
me out and asks me to help her.

  Many poor women DO want to nurse their children, but lack
access and resources to get help if they run into a problem. Poor and
minority women do not have any fewer problems breastfeeding than rich white
women do. They need the help but can’t pay for it. Are their children LESS
important than the rich white woman in the $500,000 house in Naperville or
Westport or Beverly Hills (or the middle class white woman in Lombard,
Detroit or Atlanta?) Maybe poor children just don’t NEED that extra 6 to 10
IQ points. Maybe they don’t need optimal health. Maybe they don’t need the
bonding that happens between a nursling and her mother. After all, the
assumption seems to some that they won’t amount to anything anyway. Perhaps
they just aren’t worth the trouble.  I just DON'T believe that and I hope
that few here do, either.
  Doctors do Pro Bono work, as do lawyers. Their peers and
colleges don’t say they are “lacking accountability” or are just
“practicing an expensive hobby” or worse, “Making the rest of us look
bad.”  I doubt if Jimmy Carter’s political peers denigrate him because he
helps poor people, who have no place to live, build homes for themselves. I
also don’t think Wolfgang Puck or Charlie Trotter think that the soup
kitchen or the woman passing out sandwiches on the corner to the homeless
are a threat to their fine, expensive restaurants. In no profession is it
considered “unprofessional” to help the less fortunate. Nor is attempting
to stop those who do so considered appropriate.  Why should it be in ours?

  Poverty exists. One cannot deny that. Whether you intend to
do anything about it is YOUR business, not mine. I choose to do something.
And if I can help poor women breastfeed their babies, keeping them
healthier and smarter and better loved then that is what I will continue to
do.
  I sleep better at night knowing that my education, my
expertise and my energy, is at least partially spent, helping women who
might otherwise not get help, obtain the help they need to give their
babies the best possible start in life. When I see their healthy, happy
breastfed babies I know I am not “lacking accountability” nor “practicing
an expensive hobby.” I am doing what my mind my heart and my God are
telling me is best. I am not indepenently wealthy, far from it. I do what I
can, when I can. I make a little money from people who can afford to pay
and see the rest because they need SOMEONE to help them.
  Everyone is free to use their own personal, spiritual, and
professional ethics to do what they think is best.  No one is telling you
or forcing you to take anyone on as a client that you don’t want to.
 I would never try to humiliate anyone for their choices. Please
don’t try to humiliate those of us, who may have a different type of
philosophy and practice, for ours. I THOUGHT we were all on the same side
with the same goals. I pray that we are.
  Bless all of you, all of your work and all the babies and
mothers you work with.

  Mary Jozwiak IBCLC, AAPL, LLLL

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