Kalamazoo Breast Feeding Coalition Press Release

Kalamazoo Breast Feeding Coalition Press Release

News Release  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 24th, 2022

Breastfeeding Support, Breast Milk/Infant Feeding, Infant Formula Recall, and Infant Formula Shortage

There is an infant formula shortage happening right now due to the supply chain issues caused by the global pandemic. There is also a recall of Similac, Alimentum or EleCare infant formula.  The FDA is advising consumers not to use Similac, Alimentum or EleCare powdered infant formula.

If caregivers  have infant formula to return, please visit, infant formula recall or visit the Michigan WIC webpage.

If caregivers are combining breastfeeding and infant formula feeding, breastfeed more often to increase milk supply and reduce the need for infant formula. See the USDA WIC Breastfeeding website for more information.

If families who are considering weaning from breastfeeding, consider waiting to avoid introducing or increasing formula use

It is possible to bring back a milk supply after you stopped breastfeeding, or to start producing milk even if the baby wasn’t initially breastfed. A certified lactation consultant can help. Please see the Kalamazoo Breastfeeding Coalition’s website at https://www.kzoobfcoalition.org/ for a list of Certified Lactation Consultants.

Now more than ever it is important that families feel supported with breastfeeding and/or pumping.  Kalamazoo and the Greater Kalamazoo area have so many resources for breastfeeding support.  These breastfeeding support resources are listed on the Kalamazoo County Breastfeeding Coalition website https://www.kzoobfcoalition.org/

Breastfeeding is a safe infant feeding option. Breastfeeding helps protect infants from foodborne illness and infections. Cronobacter and Salmonella illnesses have been linked to formula use, and breastfeeding is a safer alternative to consider. Maintaining and increasing human milk supply is important, particularly when infant formula availability may be limited.

Donor milk/Milk sharing:

  • For families who are breastfeeding and supplementing with infant formula or using infant formula and have concerns about Cronobacter and Salmonella contamination, they can contact their healthcare provider to see if their babies are eligible for donor milk.
  • The FDA suggests that a decision to give donor human milk to your infant should be made in consultation with the baby’s health care provider and that only screened donor human milk should be used.

If you know of anyone who is pregnant, struggling with breastfeeding and/or pumping, they can visit our website to inquire about all the great lactation resources we have in Kalamazoo https://www.kzoobfcoalition.org/

Contact:

Katie Pearson BA, CCLS

Co- Chair of the Kalamazoo Breastfeeding Coalition

269-443-3215

kzoobfcolation@gmail.com

Sokhna Heather Mabin BA, BS, EYT~Herbalist~Adv Doula~CLC

Co- Chair of the Kalamazoo Breastfeeding Coalition

917-312-5479

kzoobfcoaltion@gmail.com

Website:

https://www.kzoobfcoalition.org/

 

With/Out – ¿Borders? ll Conference

With/Out – ¿Borders? ll Conference

Kalamazoo, MI-

On the campus of K-College, many social organizers, educators and community members with meet up Friday, October 21-22, for a two-day conference, With/Out – ¿Borders? ll Conference. The event with focus on cultural and academic work, powered by Afrofuturism.
Facilitated modules around visioning of post-oppression desires through fantasy, film, technology, and speculative fiction.

Target areas of conversation:*Radical teaching
Campus activism
Education advocacy
Liberatory educational structures and paradigms

*Ideologies and technologies that move toward a renewable energy [r]evolution and sustainable future
*Global and local work creating next systems and deploying new economic possibilities and strategies.

Featured Keynote Speaker, journalist and author Naomi Klein will speak on Oct. 21 at the Arcus Center for Social Justice. The conference includes a robust panel of experts serving in local, national and global organizations. For more information visit

Afghan Parliament Blocks Violence Against Women Law

A vote on the Elimination of Violence against Women law a was delayed by the Speaker of the Lower house of Afghan Parliament this past Saturday.

Conservative members of Parliament (MPs) were in opposition against the measure, claiming it un-Islamic. Even though the EVAW law was issued by the executive decree of President Hamid Karzai in 2009, women’s rights activist Fawzia Kofi, who also heads the women’s committee of the Lower House, moved forward to introduce the EVAW in Parliament.

TOLO News reports, “The parliamentarians opposing the law call 6 of its articles to be against Islamic values.” The articles include criminalizing child marriage and forced marriage, banning the traditional “BAAD” practice of exchanging girls and girls and women to settle disputes between families, making domestic violence punishable up to three years in prison, protecting rape victims from prosecution for adultery or fornication, limiting the number of wives a man can have to two, and established shelters for battered women.

‘One Billion Rising’ Campaigns To End Violence Against Women In Kalamazoo

Downtown Kalamazoo was especially buzzing with activity on Valentine’s Day. Hundreds of supporters from around the community dance in solidarity to end violence against women. One in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime; one billion women will be violated. This was a day for communities to insist on change.

Local groups YWCA, Body Love Project, Interplay, Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and Fire were involved in the campaign as well.

 Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, is the founder of One Billion Rising. She credits widespread coverage of  the gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi, the shooting of the young activist Malala Yousafzai in Afghanistan, the brutal assaults of female revolutionaries in Tahrir, and the millions of other incidences of violence (physical, psychological, and social) that confront women in every country, every minute of every day.

 

ENJOY!!

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