"Yet NO-ONE (am I shouting?) will look at the safety and/or feasibility of
using EBM as a replacement feed for the babies of HIV+ mothers - a strategy
which would provide these very vulnerable babies with optimal nutrition and
protection from disease, ultimately cost nothing, be in the complete control
of mothers themselves, and cause less of a drain on already overstretched
healthcare services."

Yes, SHOUT! Wherever anyone will hear you! And keep shouting!

And, while we're pausing to draw breath, I'm sure many of us who get
similarly riled up about huge sums of money going to ridiculous and even
dangerous "research" could use some guidance on how to even start to think
about getting money, either for research or to fund important BFing programs
within our own communities.

My dh (dear husband - who has only today informed me that this is not a
universally used internet term!) receives HUGE streams of funding, literally
more than he reasonably knows what to do with! on a regular basis. Why?
Computer science - what more needs to be said? Does this make me bitter
sometimes? You bet it does. You should see the gadgets and gizmos and
"stuff" these guys (the big computer companies, ALL of them, and even the
federal gov't) are perfectly happy to fund. Not to mention just stuff like
meetings in massively expensive luxury hotels, repulsively expensive dinners
with those they are "liaisoning" with. (And don't get me started on that
language thing either!) While we were in Seattle a couple of weeks ago the
Microsoft guy took us out - purely social, just us shooting the breeze - and
ordered a $90. bottle of wine without batting an eyelash, all on the company
of course!

But $$$ for something important like BFing? Forget it! And when I asked him
how to approach the company about funding for this kind of community service
project (remember, Microsoft funded a big childhood vaccination program), he
just laughed. These companies MUST have foundations or something, they
couldn't possibly just exist soley for their own profit, could they? How do
you find out about them? Where would we start?

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY

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