Hi,
   My family took a trip to Erendira, Mexico this weekend as part of a
dental/mission trip.  Our church goes down a couple of times a year to the
small village on the coast.  We do dental work for the villagers and give
health education.  This time we also visited the labor camp.  The labor camp
has migrant workers who live in aluminum row houses - well, rooms. They have
a small school and rows of washing sinks outside.  This is considered one of
the nicer camps.  Because the workers were called back to the cannery we did
not see many patients.  We saw young mothers and their babies though.  The
girls often have babies at 14 - 15 yrs.  One mama had her baby wrapped
tightly on her back with a wrap.  I wanted a picture but when I asked she
refused.  Later, inside the clinic,  I saw her young child standing between
her mothers legs on her tiptoes to breastfeed.  Mom had easily pulled up her
shirt exposing one breast - scissors hold, while baby fed.  I asked again,
through a translator if I could take a picture and she said yes!  I am
hoping it comes out.  The baby was small - looked about 11 mos. but was 23
months.  The baby is not walking or talking and looked like she might have
Down's.  The local nurse had just finished telling the mother to "stop
that", meaning breastfeeding as the RN thought the (healthy looking), baby
was malnourished.  I was so sorry.  I could not say anything but
complimented the mother on her mothering and breastfeeding. Maybe she will
chose to continue breastfeeding!
  We walked into town and visited two of the very small grocery stores, one
had about 8 cans of powdered formula.  It was dated 10/04 and was very
dusty.  Nice to think it is not a fast mover! Most of the mothers I talked
to stated they breastfed for at least 6 months. Many mothers had their
babies in wraps or slings - those from newborn to 3 years. The babies also
were not close in age, most were about 2 - 3 years apart.
  On another subject, a nice article about our hospital breastfeeding clinic
was in the paper Sunday.  You can view it at www.nctimes.com, scroll down to
the Life section. The Lactation Consultant leading the support group is my
daughter, who is also IBCLC working at the same hospital as I do.     Judith
Markham IBCLC RLC RLLL

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