WALC

In solidarity with thousands of individuals and many organizations across the United States of America and the world, the U.S. Lactation Consultant Association calls on lawmakers to end immediately the forced separation of children from their parents at the U.S. border. This unnecessary practice is harmful to both adults and their children, and no justification for this practice should be prioritized above the health and well-being of human beings.

As International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs), we work daily alongside many more breastfeeding advocates and providers of health care to support and ensure optimal health of pregnant people, parents, infants, children, and the general public through education about and assistance with breastfeeding. The IBCLC is an expert in infant feeding and is responsible to uphold scientific, evidence-informed theory and practice that is free from conflict of interest, be it financial, academic, personal, political, or otherwise.

Separation of children from their parents creates barriers to breastfeeding and safe infant feeding, and to our knowledge, no IBCLCs have been contacted with regard to how to appropriately feed infants away from their parents, to support and protect continued lactation in lactating persons who do not have access to their children for breastfeeding, or any general information about infant and young child feeding in national emergencies, natural disasters, or humanitarian crises. It is critical to understand that globally, children breastfeed far beyond infancy and that this practice is important to the health of families and the general public. The abrupt removal of the opportunity to be breastfed or to express breast milk has serious health consequences for infants, toddlers, and their lactating parents, and USLCA firmly opposes this practice in all circumstances. In addition, all major health organizations with policies about infant feeding call for the use of pasteurized donor human milk in all situations where their own parent’s milk is not available; the use of safely prepared infant formula for all children under the age of 12 months is only recommended when neither their own parent’s milk nor pasteurized donor human milk are available.

USLCA calls for the immediate and rapid reunification of families who have been separated from each other, as well as the provision of appropriate health care and support for all persons who have been directly affected by the practice of forced separation. This includes comprehensive health consultation for all facets of physiological and mental health, as well as support for resuming breastfeeding, milk expression, and education and support to ensure safe infant and young child feeding.

We received many interesting and ambitious grant applications this year! Lactation support is growing in our area and we are fortunate to have so many people supporting breastfeeding families!

This year WALC is supporting the following agencies and programs –

The Mother’s Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes – A High Capacity Shaking Water Bath and Thermometer

Milk Depot at 9th Street Wellness Center in Green Bay – Purchase of a Freezer

Breastfeeding Alliance of Northeast Wisconsin (BFAN) – Support for a focus group to determine what is preventing mothers in the community from reaching their breastfeeding goals.

Washington Ozaukee Breastfeeding Coalition – Workplace Breastfeeding Initiative

African American Breastfeeding Network – Community Breastfeeding Gatherings

Family Health/La Clinica – Breastfeeding Education and Support materials for local support group

Fond du Lac County WIC/Public Health – Workplace Breastfeeding Initiative

Full Moon Rising – Local breastfeeding promotion and support

Thank you for all you do to support breastfeeding families!

We are seeking nominations for the Secretary Position on the Board.

Thank you to Lisa Brock for your service to WALC and the Lactation Community as Secretary! Lisa has been elected to the USLCA Board and has stepped down from her position as WALC Board Secretary. Thank you for all you’ve done for mothers, families and WALC, Lisa!

Secretary is an elected Board position and we are taking nominations. You can nominate yourself or another WALC member. Send nominations to WALC President, Allison Laverty Montag at allisonlavmon@gmail.com. Please share this with anyone you think will be interested.

Secretary duties:
Take Minutes at our WALC Board meetings and WALC Business Meetings.
Board meets before our regularly scheduled WALC meetings:
3rd Friday of January
3rd Tuesday of May
3rd Friday of September
2nd Tuesday of November
We often meet the evening before these dates when the Board agenda is longer (commonly January and May meetings). (Anticipate two overnight meetings per year.)
Submit minutes to Board for review and post on website within 2 weeks of meeting.

Please contact Allison with questions allisonlavmon@gmail.com

It’s not too late to join us for the May 15th WALC meeting.  We are showing a USCLA Webinar on Tongue Tie with Alison Hazelbaker, Annette Skowronski, and Catherine Watson Genna.  2L CERPs.  RSVP to Diane Oakland at  doakland@thebirthhospital.org if you would like to attend.  More information is available on our website – walc.net

Please check out our meeting page for information on our upcoming meeting. We have some exciting plans for upcoming speakers. Stay tuned for more info!

Each year that there are adequate funds in the treasury, the WALC will consider grants to individuals or organizations to fund projects consistent with the purposes of WALC. WALCs statement of purpose can be found on the website, but especially relevant tenets are:
• To support and encourage the development of high standards of effective and ethical practice in the field of infant feeding among lactation consultants and other health care workers.
• To create universal awareness of the importance of human milk and breastfeeding and the hazards of artificial feeding.
• To cooperate with other Wisconsin organizations that have aims and objectives (in whole or in part) similar to those of WALC.
The WALC board will approve the applications and may elect to fully or partially fund a request.

The Project Grant Application can be found under forms on our website. Please submit applications to Allison – allisonlavmon@gmail.com by May 1, 2018. Please contact Allison with any questions.

WALC has quarterly meetings which are held May, September, November and January each year. Each meeting offers 2 hours of education. Locations vary throughout the state. If you are interested in hosting a meeting, please let us know!

Do you know a great speaker or aspire to become a speaker?

We are looking for recommendations for topics and speakers. (You can suggest yourself!) : )

Please email Diane at doakland@thebirthhospital.org or Allison at allisonlavmon@gmail.com with your suggestions!

Have a beautiful day and thank you for all you do to support breastfeeding families!

Hello Everyone!

Below is a letter that was sent to Anthem Blue Cross in response to their decision to lower reimbursement breast pumps effective April 1, 2017. Please feel free to use this letter as a template for a response from you! I encourage you to personalize your response and make changes to make it your own so it stands out.

There are 3 email addresses in the email to which you can send your response.

Thank you for all you do to support breastfeeding families!

Allison

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February 27, 2018

Craig Samitt, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer
Anthem, Inc.
120 Monument Circle
Indianapolis, IN 46204
Craig.Samitt@anthem.com

Dear Doctor Samitt,

This letter is in regards to Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s decision to lower reimbursement for E0603 from $169.15 to $95.00. This cut in reimbursement will put mothers, babies and young families at risk of reduced duration of breastfeeding. In particular, low-income families will be adversely impacted as they lack resources to access other options.

I represent the Wisconsin Association of Lactation Consultants. Our membership of 168 Lactation Supporters work daily to support breastfeeding families and to help them overcome barriers to the continuation of breastfeeding from the early days after birth to returning to work and through weaning. Many of us work with mothers that are returning to work very early – at times as soon as 1-2 weeks postpartum. A vital part of what we do is to help mothers prepare to return to work and maintain their milk supply while away from their babies. These mothers face many barriers. The use of ineffective and low cost breast pumps will add another obstacle to the continuation of breastfeeding.
Reduced access to reliable and durable breast pumps will impact the bottom line of Anthem with shorter durations of breastfeeding. The 2010 paper The Burden of Suboptimal Breastfeeding in the United States: A Pediatric Cost Analysis estimates “If 90% of US families could comply with medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United States would save $13 billion per year and prevent an excess 911 deaths, nearly all of which would be in infants ($10.5 billion and 741 deaths at 80% compliance).”

The decision to lower reimbursement for breast pumps is contrary to the stance Anthem has taken in the past to support quality care of mothers and babies. We urge you to reconsider this decision and to maintain coverage at the current rates.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Yours truly,

Allison Laverty Montag IBCLC
WALC President
allisonlavmon@gmail.com
(920)765-4375

CC: Mr. Paul Nobile, President
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin
Paul.Nobile@anthem.com

CC: Michael Jaeger, MD, Medical Director
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin
Michael.Jaeger@anthem.com

Our 2018 WALC Breastfeeding Conference is less than a month away!  Procrastinator fees start on February 16 so sign up soon to save some money.  And be sure to get your hotel room right away!   To register online:  WALC Conference Online Registration   To Register by mail, check out our brochure on the website (Under Conference).  Be sure to postmark it by February 15 to beat the Procrastinator increase.   Hope to see you there!

In late December, durable medical equipment providers received a letter from Anthem informing them of a reduction in reimbursement for E0603, from $169.15 to $95.00.  The effective date is April 1, 2018.

CA, CO, CT, GA, IN, KY, ME, MO, NH, NV, IL, NY, OH, VA, WI, are the states being affected.

Let’s work together to protect the families we work with to get the care and breastfeeding equipment they need!

You can use the following on social media:

Big changes are coming for thousands of moms with Anthem Blue Cross benefits.  @AnthemInc has decided to cut their rates for breastfeeding support starting April 1.  Many moms depend on quality breast pumps to care for their babies.  They are planning to reduce breast pump coverage to $95. At that low of a rate, there is no quality pump in existence that can extract milk or keep up your supply.   

Let @AnthemInc know that moms and babies matter.  Share your voice online and contact https://twitter.com/hashtag/antheminc to stress your concern.  Or send a letter: To the Chief Medical Officer, Craig Samitt, MD. (Craig.Samitt@anthem.com).

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Dr. Jenny Thomas has shared this information on Facebook and has given permission for us to share her post here. Please see her facebook page for the original post which you can share.