In 2004 alone, major emergencies affected nearly 40 million people, including 5.8 million children under the age of five, in 55 countries. The main causes of death among children during emergencies are the same as those occurring among otherwise disadvantaged populations, namely malnutrition, diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory infection, measles and malaria. However, emergencies distinguish themselves by their frequently soaring crude mortality rates, which can be two to 70 times higher than average. Experience shows that even in previously healthy populations, child morbidity and crude mortality rates can increase twentyfold in as short a period as two weeks. The best hope for averting the disability and death that are so common among children during emergencies is to ensure that they are adequately cared for and fed.

One might hope that such a dramatic increase in mortality would not be seen in an industrialized nation with advanced medical care like the United States. Yet in 2005, less than a year after that report came out, Hurricane Katrina struck and — not including the immediate death toll — the mortality rate soared in New Orleans! For the six month period starting in January 2006, by some measures the mortality rate increased 47% compared to the mortality rate during the same time period in previous years. Incredibly, January 2006 was a full four months after the hurricane hit and the people in that region continued to suffer such devastating health effects. (It was difficult to determine the mortality rate right after the hurricane due to the disarray of the local health systems and the displacement of the population in the hurricane’s aftermath).

In 2008 researcher Jacqueline H. Wolf reflected back on the media coverage in the immediate wake of the hurricane:

Discussing our culture’s attitude toward breastfeeding in relation to the Katrina disaster would have been a tremendous public service. Think about how much our discomfort with breastfeeding would have been mitigated if one of the Katrina reports contrasted the convenience and dependability of breastfeeding with the difficulty and unreliability of formula feeding. Imagine: images of mothers’ breasts saving babies’ lives. That would have been a national revelation. We talk about the importance of breastfeeding, yet we’re a formula feeding culture. It seemed perfectly natural to all the reporters and much of the viewing audience during Katrina that mothers were hysterical and babies were dehydrated because there was not enough infant formula available. The entire nation seemed to be saying, “Of course that’s a consequence of a hurricane.” No reporter thought to ask, “Why aren’t these women breastfeeding?” No reporter thought to ask, “What roadblocks have we constructed as a nation that would dissuade women from breastfeeding and put their babies through this completely avoidable horror?”

“Got Milk? Not in public!” International Breastfeeding Journal 2008, 3:11. This Medindia article describes one tragic Katrina story:

Some women freeze when it comes to breastfeeding during emergencies and this happens in countries all over the world. When Hurricane Katrina hit the US in 2005, a woman who was stuck on a rooftop with many other family members and with little access to clean water, bottle fed her two week old baby for two weeks and when rescued later, asked for help to dry up her breast milk because her breast felt sore with the accumulated milk. When asked why she didn’t breastfeed her baby the mother replied that she “felt quite unable to do this.” The baby later died in a hospital.

A health counselor who worked with survivors of Katrina said sadly, “What amazes me is that no one with the mother in New Orleans knew to have the mother put her baby to her breast. So many generations had not considered breastfeeding as a way to feed babies that the memory was lost. The baby was lost, also.”

Mothers need to get the message that breastfeeding is a lifesaver, whether it be in regular times or times of emergency. In an emergency mothers who are breastfeeding should continue to do so. Mothers who have recently given birth should put their babies to the breast and mothers who have given birth within six months should nurse and hand-express to build up a milk supply as best as each mother is able. In an emergency, if the mother’s own milk is not available right away or through re-lactation, then donor human milk or wet nursing should be considered. Only then should ready-made formula and canned formula be considered as last resorts.

Other Carnival Entries

Motherwear Breastfeeding Blog: Breastfeeding in Emergency Situations
Blacktating: Breastfeeding and Living through Hurricanes
Hobo Mama: Breastfeeding in Local and Global Crises
Pure Mothers: Marketing away “Real Milk”
Chronicles of a Nursing Mom: Tips for Consistent and Long-Term Breastfeeding Success
Zen Mommy: How Breastfeeding Prepares a Child for Life
Cave Mother: The Moments That Made Me Thankful That I Breastfeed
Fusion Parenting: Breastfeeding: Prepared for LIFE!

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

A newspaper in Chengdu, the capital of quake-hit Sichuan province, devoted a special page to the 29-year-old woman, calling her a “hero.”

The woman from the quake-ravaged town of Jiangyou has just had a child herself, the Western Urban Daily said.

She is nursing the children of three women who were left homeless by the quake and are too traumatised to give milk, as well as five orphans, the report said.

The babies who lost their parents have been put in an orphanage which does not have powdered milk, it said.

Amazing what a life-saver breastfeeding can be in an emergency, and how wonderful that this woman has stepped in to help so many infants! It’s a testimony to the human spirit, not to mention the breast milk production function of supply and demand and the ability of a woman to breastfeed multiples!

For more information on breastfeeding during a crisis, see Infant Feeding during an Emergency.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

The hierarchy for infant feeding in an emergency is as follows:
(1) breastfeeding, (1)(a) relactating within six months of giving birth or relactating after stopping breastfeeding, (2) ready-to-feed artificial baby milk, and powdered artificial baby milk prepared with (3) bottled water, (4) boiled water and (5) treated water.

(1) Breastfeeding. Breastfeeding saves infant lives during an emergency. For proof, all we have to do is look to the cases of Hurricane Katrina, the tsunami disaster and the story of the Kim family trapped in the snow. A lack of sanitary water sources and adequate supplies of infant food puts non-breastfed babies at extra risk during a disaster. Breastfeeding also protects the baby from respiratory illnesses and diarrhea–two common ailments that can be killers during times of disaster.

If a mother is breastfeeding her baby she should continue to allow the baby to nurse as often as the baby desires. This helps keep up the mother’s milk supply and offers comfort to both the baby and the mother (the breastfeeding hormone prolactin helps a mother relax).

Make sure you have stored plenty of water to keep a nursing mother hydrated during a disaster. The average person needs a half-gallon of water per day and the nursing mother needs more than that–enough to prevent thirst and keep her urine a pale yellow color. While food may be conserved in an emergency, experts say that water should not be rationed. The mother should drink water as needed and try to find additional sources of safe drinking water.

If the mother cannot nurse due to separation or injury, don’t forget about any expressed breast milk stored in the freezer! Some things to consider: pumping or hand-expressing a reasonable amount of milk as part of an emergency preparedness plan, having a generator as a back-up energy source to keep the refrigerator or deep-freezer operating during a power outage, brainstorming other measures to keep the milk frozen/cooled such as bags of ice or outdoor elements such as snow, and printing out a chart of breast milk storage times.

(1)(a). Relactation. According to La Leche League, a mother can have a full milk supply quickly if she has given birth within the last five days, and even a mother who has given birth within the last six months can slowly build up a milk supply by putting her baby to breast or hand-expressing every two hours. Mothers who recently weaned can also relactate.

(2) Ready-made artificial baby milk. If a mother is not breastfeeding, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends ready-to-feed artificial baby milk. As expensive as it is, it eliminates concerns about whether any available water is safe for the preparation of powdered milks.

(3), (4), and (5). Powdered milks prepared with bottled, boiled or treated water. As a last resort, the CDC recommends preparing powdered milks with bottled, boiled or treated water (in that order).

See this comprehensive compilation of resources for more information on infant feeding during an emergency.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3