Cindy, There is a wonderful research paper on the web that might be of interest to the nurse who is going on a mission to Haiti to help moms breastfeed. It's called the, "Ecological study of effect of breastfeeding on infant mortality in Latin America," from the BMJ 2001;323:303 (11 August) by Betran et al. http://www.mindfully.org/Health/Breast-Feeding-Study.htm In Haiti according to WHO statistics 96% of the moms breastfeed but only 2% exclusively breastfeed. Haiti's infant mortality rate is 132 per 1000 births--very high. The study above states that 55% of infant deaths from diarrhoeal disease and acute respiratory infections in Latin America are preventable by exclusive breastfeeding among infants aged 0-3 months. This study believes that about 52,000 infant deaths would be prevented by promoting exclusive breastfeeding 0-3months and partial breastfeeding throughout the remainder of infancy. Haiti also has high rates of hiv/aids. Promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for moms who are hiv positive in areas of extreme poverty are important and part of WHO policy. The problem for this nurse maybe that she, herself, may not have enough background experience and knowledge of breastfeeding to promote this or help women practice exclusive breastfeeding. It is upsetting to me that people are sent to these countries to help with breastfeeding when they themselves have never done it and/or never been educated in that area. It would be like sending me to help people in Haiti build a well for water. I would have alot of good intentions to be helpful but I might make a real mess of it because I have no training in that area. Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html