Following the horrible disaster in Haiti, the International Lactation Consultant Association is encouraging anyone involved in the disaster relief efforts to support breastfeeding. This means that any introduction of artificial breast milk is a hindrance to the situation. According to the President of ILCA, Angela Smith,
“Breastfeeding provides a sanitary, safe, and consistently available food source, which is vitally important during and following a disaster. Human milk also contains important anti-infective properties that protect infants from malnutrition, diarrhea and other diseases that commonly arise during an emergency situation such as this tragic situation in Haiti.”
More recommendations from the organization are as follows:
- Encourage mothers to continue breastfeeding to give infants sanitary, safe nutrition, to help fight infection and disease, and to keep infants warm;
- Feed the mother so she can, in turn, feed her infant;
- Provide a safe environment for breastfeeding or expressing milk, including providing a private area or a way to breastfeed discreetly, if the mother desires it;
- Assist mothers who are separated from their infants with regular milk removal to maintain their milk production and avoid engorgement;
- Provide donor human milk from a human milk bank if a mother is injured or unable to directly breastfeed;
- Assist mothers with re-establishing their milk production if they have already weaned their baby.
The full press release is here.
As for milk donation, it looks like there is still some organizing left to do. You can visit this website to learn more about how you can help by means of milk donation.
From what I’ve found, the U.S. milk donor supply is low. The goal is to increase our supply in order to meet the Haitian needs. So, get out there and donate!
I was reading another blog post about the status of the milk donation to Haiti, and a great point was brought up:
Is it beneficial to even send this milk, if the point is to encourage breastfeeding?
I agree with the writer in that it wouldn’t be beneficial to supply a breastfeeding mother with donor milk. This would keep her from feeding her child with her own milk, which would lower her supply. But, the milk would be great for a baby that may have lost his/her mother, or for a baby that was not already breastfeeding. Whatever the case may be, I hope that an effort to donate breast milk helps the people in this devastating time.
