Hi all,
Yesterday on the 5 pm news I learned that Kijana, a 1 year old baby
elephant at the Oakland zoo died due to infection.  The zoo offical stated
that Kijana died because she was not breastfed. He said that Mom Elephant
didn't know how to breastfeed because she didn't have any role models in
the zoo. They had to develop an elephant formula similar to bm.  They
thought they had developed a wonderful formula until yesterday, Kijana
didn't have the antibodies to fight off infection. The offical said on t.v.
that breastmilk would have protected the baby against infection just like
human breast milk protects human babies. I was so happy to hear a public
announcement of the importance of breastmilk on t.v.  The newspaper article
on 10/8 , S.F Chronicle, wasn't nearly as generous and barely mentioned the
breastmilk component. What is it going to take for our society to GET IT.
No, I'm not shouting, I'm crying. It is amazing to me how easy it is to
forget what we have been genetically programed to do for millions of years.
All species of mammals will forget without role models. What a delicate
world we live in.
It is up to us to help women remember. WOW, what a task.
My first soapbox on the net,
Star Siegfried, R.N. B.A.(IBCLC, hopefully any day now)