Profiles

The first scholarship recipient was Sara Goff in Fort Campbell, KY.
She writes:

May 1st, 2006
Dear Nurturing Life Foundation,

Thank-you so much for your generous scholarship that enabled me to attend the LLLI Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Program Administrator Training. I am very excited to be writing to you about an opportunity we have to empower mothers at Fort Campbell, KY. I am an Army wife, mother of two, a La Leche League leader, and a La Leche League trained Peer Counselor Administrator/trainer. I have been working with mothers at Fort Campbell for over two years. I would like to share with you some of my experiences and how I believe we can empower military mothers creating successful breastfeeding relationships.

•  Imagine…… Sending your husband a Red Cross message to let him know his first son was born, 11:08 pm, 7 lbs. 6oz, lots of hair.
•  Imagine……. Daddy meeting his baby on the internet web camera. Knowing he is trying to hide his tears as he smiles at you over a fuzzy connection.
•  Imagine……. Dreaming of breastfeeding your baby during your whole pregnancy. Or just having the idea that you would like to “try that breastfeeding”. Only to be undermined by well-intentioned hospital staff, misunderstood by your friends, unsupported by your far away family. Everyone always has an opinion and most mean to share it with you. Your husband is unsure how he can bond with the baby if he isn’t able to feed him. Maybe I can’t do this?
•  Imagine…… No sleep. Not only because you have a newborn demanding your every second, but your husband is in a war zone…going to a war zone….leaving a war zone…or is deployed to who knows where and can’t tell you anything about it for security reasons.
•  Imagine….. You are the soldier, the mother, the wife. The pressure can be overwhelming. The breastfeeding support non-existent.

 Military wives as a whole are strong, independent and self-sufficient. Pregnancy and birth bring a whole new spin on life and hormones in any situation. Military wives very often experience it alone but with the complexity of not really being “alone”. It’s hard to explain to someone without military experience the dynamic of being married / parenting long distance often with little communication. Or the fragility of incorporating your soldier back into family life as if no separation ever occurred. I cannot count the number of calls I receive from women simply in need of an ear to listen and a nudge in the right direction. Most have nobody in their lives that supports their choice and they feel pressured to choose artificial baby milk for fear of never having the ability to spend time alone (a rare commodity for single parents without family or friends around). Mothers who are active duty soldiers are also in a unique position. Put bluntly they are property of the military. Their superiors are overwhelmingly male. The hours are demanding and long. Women soldiers are in stiff competition to keep up with their male counterparts. Breastfeeding finds many contradictions to this lifestyle if not managed with tact and good information.

 So what am I so excited about? How can we empower mothers in the Fort Campbell community to choose breastfeeding and nourish that relationship beyond 6 months? A La Leche League Breastfeeding Peer Counselor Program would give us exactly what we need. We are expecting a post deployment baby boom in the autumn. As La Leche League leaders there are three of us in the area. We have one lactation consultant on staff at the hospital and the potential of welcoming 200-300 babies a month. We are simply overwhelmed already. A peer counselor program would give us the additional help of an “army” of trained breastfeeding advocates. Mothers who will provide one on one, mother to mother support. In addition to providing support to military wives and active duty mothers we want to help educate the medical staff, fathers and family support groups. The Army has a whole community of support set up for families. We just need to educate them about breastfeeding and encourage them to refer families to the lines of support we can provide. La Leche League meetings are not the right approach for every mother. A peer counselor program will much more adequately address the needs of this community.

 How?

 Our goal is to train 10 or more mothers from the Fort Campbell community as breastfeeding peer counselors. As I write this we already have three mothers interested and several more asking for more information. The idea of creating a father to father class or couples support meeting has become very popular. This would require educating interested fathers in basic lactation education and communication skills. The local WIC program has expressed interest in having us bring breastfeeding classes into the clinic. We want to create a close relationship with WIC as they have a strong presence in this community. The Blanchfield Army Community Hospital has expressed interest in the past of having peer counselor volunteers on the mother baby unit or available by phone. We did not have enough mothers trained to be effective at the time. To put it mildly we were overwhelmed. We now have enough mothers interested in being trained as peer counselors that we could spread out the requests for help and reach more mothers in those critical first few days postpartum.

 I sincerely appreciate your interest is helping us to make the dream of a Fort Campbell Peer Counselor Program a reality.

With gratitude,
—Sara Goff

The second scholarship recipient was Lord Colon-Hyman, a Hispanic woman from Colorado Springs and bilingual Peer Counselor. Because of her training she was able to obtain a job as a Peer Counselor with her local WIC agency. She continues to be a translator at the local hospital as well and is using her training to assist women who speak Spanish there in Colorado.

 “Few minutes ago I got a call from WIC and I was offered a Breastfeeding Peer Counselor position. I accepted it and I am really excited. I will continue working in my hospital since both are part-time jobs.

Again Thank you so much,
—Lord”