When the System Stops: Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies in Appalachia

The SAFE Infant Feeding Team is on the Day Two panel at the 6th Appalachian Breastfeeding Conference.

SAFE is the national IYCF-E implementation of Breastfeeding Family Friendly Communities. If BFFC is the blue skies strategy, the slow work of building communities where feeding a baby is everyone’s business, SAFE is the gray skies strategy, for the days that work gets tested.

Appalachia has already lived this. When the roads wash out and the power stays off for a week, the formula supply chain and the lactation support system fail at the same time, and the families furthest up the holler feel it first. Every emergency plan we have seen assumes someone else is handling the babies. This session is about what a community can put in place before the water rises.

Registration and the full program are on the Appalachian Breastfeeding Network website.