Comments on Blacktating: How to Help Haiti

Sharon, Great questions. Lactating women's mil...

2010-01-18T19:24:14.812-05:00

Sharon,
Great questions. Lactating women's milk supply isn't impacted by stress or grief. As long as you are putting your baby to your breast, your milk supply will be just fine. Some women do notice their letdown or milk ejection reflex is slower when stressed out, but even that should bounce back quickly. If stress made breastfeeding impossible, I imagine women in places like Israel, Sudan and Haiti would've never been able to nurse. And actually in Haiti, breastfeeding is the norm and the overwhelming majority of women breastfeed. There were babies who were already relying on formula because Haiti already had a large population of infant orphans. MSNBC reporter Soledad O'Brien is in Haiti and has been tweeting her experiences. She has said there are babies who are being fed formula and are becoming dehydrated due to diarrhea and requiring IVs. They are also forced to give babies regular cow's milk as they run out of formula. It's just a terrible situation all around. I am sure if it were somehow feasible or possible, an entire army of lactating women would fly to Haiti and just sit and nurse those babies around-the-clock. If only there were an easy solution to all of these huge problems.

2010-01-18T19:12:00.009-05:00

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I am curious. Are lactating women impacted by str...

2010-01-18T19:00:32.666-05:00

I am curious. Are lactating women impacted by stress/grief - stress from the tragedy - and does that impact their supply of breast milk? Also, what do those babies do without a Mama to supply breast milk? I know that some women will breast feed another baby but how many can do that in the face of this tragedy and loosing family, friends, etc. I would hope that enough women can help breastfeed and then the donated breast milk here can be transported. Lastly, I wonder what the breastfeeding rate was prior to the earthquake? Or did alot of women their breastfeed already? What happens to those babies who were relying already on formula?

It makes me so sad. Sad for Mama and Babies and Families.....

I saw the news yesterday and the people are really...

2010-01-18T00:38:32.012-05:00

I saw the news yesterday and the people are really panicking because of the hunger. Survivors can be victims soon. Let us help them! The International Red Cross are sending relief so you can go to there offices and extend help.

I was wondering if there was any way to send breas...

2010-01-17T21:11:05.072-05:00

I was wondering if there was any way to send breastmilk.

Deb and I are donating up to $200 of our Mamanista money + we have $200 matching.

And on Bloganthropy we are linking to a bunch of blogers who are donating what they can (linked to my name). Come boost those donations and share any others you know of.

Infant formula might be appropriate for a limited ...

2010-01-16T20:04:42.920-05:00

Infant formula might be appropriate for a limited number of babies but it is NEVER appropriate for church groups or random small relief groups to be distributing it. There are serious health consequences to uncontrolled distribution of formula. It should only be distributed by organizations that have protocols to make sure it goes only to infants who truly need it, doesn't end up sickening or killing breastfed babies.

Rebekah, No, because you need clean water both to ...

2010-01-16T16:59:37.635-05:00

Rebekah,
No, because you need clean water both to mix the formula with and to clean and sterilize the bottles and nipples. Donor breast milk would be the best option, but cross-nursing is a good second choice.

Good points. I hadn't heard people ask for fo...

2010-01-16T16:52:35.908-05:00

Good points. I hadn't heard people ask for formula donations but it makes sense that people would donate it and with the lack of safe water it would be a huge issue.

What about babies whose mothers were killed? Woul...

2010-01-16T10:50:24.509-05:00

What about babies whose mothers were killed? Wouldn't donated formula be appropriate for them?

I called HMBANA today to ask about this. I was tol...

2010-01-15T23:58:22.945-05:00

I called HMBANA today to ask about this. I was told that there is currently no way for HMBANA to transport breast milk to Haiti. They did recommend donating to one of their banks in the US, because if a conduit becomes available, then the milk that has already been donated can be sent.

A reader emailed me and said she wanted to donate ...

2010-01-15T14:50:17.577-05:00

A reader emailed me and said she wanted to donate some of her breast milk and asked me if I knew how she might go about doing so. I hear they are having problems getting regular aid into Port Au Prince so I'm not sure how breast milk can get over the border, safely stored, etc, but if you or anyone else knows, please let me know. I''ll check back for replies.