Karen -
I appreciate your words about the young and very poor new mothers you see in
New Mexico. I saw the same at WIC, here in one of the wealthiest counties
(supposedly) in upstate New York (Tompkins County). Now that I am in private
practice, I see women who can pay my fee - a fee I myself certainly could
not have afforded on my WIC salary, by the way. It's so very easy to forget,
or even to not be aware of, the very many women who are so poor that they
are essentially below our ordinary line of vision. These are women and
families who, in effect, have no voice; it's very easy for us to get all
pious and talk about our "values" (re: the importance of breastfeeding or
anything else), but unless we can connect with these people, hearing the
real daily concerns of their lives, who are we to "preach" to or about what
they "should" do? I see that kind of poverty mostly in rural families here
in Ithaca - recently voted the "Most Enlightened City" in the US by Utne
Reader mag, by the way;once I started doing home visits to the little shacks
and abandoned bread trucks and trailers so many of "my" moms lived in, I was
a lot less quick to tell these women what to do. It was much easier for me
to sit in the WIC clinic and reassure a pregnant teen that lack of privacy
really shouldn't be a reason not to nurse her baby before I had been to her
house and seen the numbers and variety of folks who shared her dwelling, and
who was in and out all day (and I can't imagine the nights...), and what
went on there, etc. Now I'm much more willing to believe what a mom tells me
about why BF isn't for her.

Gift packs? How about some guarantee that a new mom could have phone service
and access to transportation for the first few weeks of her baby's
life???How about public health nurses funded adequately to find and visit
all these moms and babes?

Oops, soap box time...
Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC
-----Original Message-----
From: Karen D. Taylor RN, IBCLC [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, December 25, 1998 10:23 AM
Subject: gift packs


Dear Lactnetters

Merry Christmas!  I was catching up on mail last night and read about gift
packs with interest.  I have mixed feelings about gift packs.  New Mexico
had
a large medicaid and just plain poor population.  Most of the teens I see,
and
sadly, there are alot, have little more than nothing material.  They use the
diaper bags.  They appreciate the little plastic breast milk storage
containers from Ross which fit on the breast pump they get from WIC.  I have
seen children having children that are too poor to qualify for WIC because
they don't have electricity.  These people need any "gift" we can provide.
Although a "gift" of breast pads, thermometers, and the like would be
preferable, there is no one to pay for these useful things.  Hospital
finances
are cut to the bone and formula companies take up the slack.  This might not
be a good thing but it is reality.  Right now I'm having more problems with
the nursery nurses who treat all breastfed babies as potential blood sugar
catastrophes than with the formula reps who know we are taking all the
formula
out of the gift packs we give to the new breastfeeding Moms.  That, however,
is another story.

Happy New Year and greeting from New Mexico
Karen Taylor RN, IBCLC