The NYTimes Motherlode blog reports that the International Breast Milk project is engaging in an effort to send breast milk to Haiti. If you had a plane and resources on the ground to get food to needy families, wouldn't it be far more efficient (and less wasteful) to get clean water and food to women who are able to nurse, and maybe even, gasp... formula for the kids whose mothers are not able to nurse?
(Addenda: Jan 28) As you can see, I was skeptical of the value of loading a plane with highly perishable breast milk on dry ice, rather than food and water...), so I dug deeper into the motivation for seeking breast milk donations
"... after the Asian tsunami of 2004. According to the Emergency Nutrition Network, some 72% of families with infants received donated baby formula. The result was a dramatic decline in breastfeeding and a tripling of diarrheal diseases among babies, the British group concluded. "People are really well-meaning, and it's a very difficult concept for people to grasp," said lactation consultant Gina Ciagne. "But breastfeeding is going to be so much better."
That seems to make a little more sense. In addition, formula is friggin expensive and the last thing most Haitian families need is a kid who will only drink formula. And an adult human could survive 2 weeks without food, but a newborn baby could not. So I take back what I said about breastmilk being an inefficient use of cargo space.
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