Did you know I'm an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant)? I am. And so I was watching with jaded eye, waiting for the formula companies to move in with donations of free formula. Didn't have to wait long. The companies are profiting from the disaster in violation of international guidelines for infant feeding in emergencies.
In emergency relief operations, breastfeeding for infants should be protected, promoted and supported. Any donated supplies of breastmilk substitutes (or other products covered by the Code) may be given only under strict conditions (if infant has to be fed with breastmilk substitute); the supply is continued for as long as the infants concerned need it; and the supply is not used as a sales inducement.
The American Academy of Paediatrics issued an open letter on the subject. Here is the complete text:
An Open Letter to Health Care Providers Attending to Families Affected
by Hurricane Katrina: The Role of Human Milk and Breastfeeding
September 7, 2005
You are caring for children and adults under the most stressful and distressing situations during this post-Hurricane Katrina period. We all thank you and honor you for this heroic effort.
Please consider the value of human milk and breastfeeding as an important component of this care of both young children and their mothers. Human milk is a valuable resource that can not only protect the vulnerable infant from disease, but can also promote psychological health and comfort during stressful times. Human milk reduces pain and promotes more rapid healing after injuries and infections. While maternal health is of great importance, it should be recognized that even the malnourished mother will produce milk of good quality for her infant.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states that "breastfeeding ensures the best possible health as well as the best developmental and psychosocial outcomes for infants." Under situations of displacement, poor sanitation, inadequate food resources, threats of infection, and severe anxiety, human milk and breastfeeding have a particularly important role to play in protecting the vulnerable infant from infection and psychological trauma. One example of this protection is the remarkable reduction in diarrhea in breastfed infants who are exposed to shigella, a common cause of dysentery.
During this post-Hurricane Katrina time, health care workers should make every effort to promote breastfeeding by:
1) urging pregnant women to breastfeed immediately after delivery of their infant,
2) urging new mothers to start breastfeeding at any time during the early weeks after birth
3) urging breastfeeding mothers to continue exclusive breastfeeding for six months
4) urging breastfeeding mothers to continue breastfeeding for at least one year and longer, even after starting other foods.
La Leche League International and the Section on Breastfeeding of the American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as many other experts on breastfeeding, stand ready to assist you in your efforts to promote, protect and support breastfeeding and the use of human milk.
Lawrence M. Gartner, M.D.
Member, Professional Advisory Board of LLLI
Chair, Section on Breastfeeding of the AAP
Professor Emeritus, The University of Chicago
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2 comments:
I'm glad they put out that statement. I hope it does some good. I still find areas where breastfeeding is not the norm...my inlaws area, for example. Steel mill town, slow economy, etc...but yet breast feeding is seen as strange and inconvienent. When I nursed my oldest one, I think that was the first time they had ever seen someone breastfeed a child.
By the time my third one came along, I was used to the comments of "oh yeah, you don't use formula".
Hopefully new moms, rich or poor, will be encouraged to provide this for their babies. It is such a gift.
I had to wonder about nursing while I was watching those poor people on television. More than one asked about milk for babies, and I thought, "why aren't they being nursed?" Too late by then, but in the 35 years (! -- how'd THAT happen?!?) since my first was born, you'd think that the word would have got around more.
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