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Minnesota State Office - WIC Program

800-657-3942 (toll-free)

651-201-4444 (state office)

Find your WIC Clinic Phone Number

Contact Info

Minnesota State Office - WIC Program

800-657-3942 (toll-free)

651-201-4444 (state office)

Find your WIC Clinic Phone Number

Breastfeeding in Emergencies

During emergencies, the life-saving protection of breastfeeding is more important than ever. Emergencies can force families from their homes and result in devastating food insecurity, limited access to clean water, and disruptions to basic services—with women and children being at the greatest risk. In these settings, breastfeeding or chestfeeding guarantees a safe, nutritious, and accessible food source for infants and young children and a protective shield against disease and death.

Global Breastfeeding Collective Breastfeeding in Emergency Situations (PDF)

Why breastfeeding during disasters matters:

Human milk provides complete nutrition and hydration. It is accessible, warm, and clean.
It cannot be put on hold until the disaster is over because human milk supply can be impacted if stopped for even a short period of time.
It protects infants from the risks of using contaminated water supplies during a disaster.
It can help protect against respiratory illnesses and diarrhea, which can be fatal for displaced families.
Human milk is available all the time without needing other supplies.
Nursing provides comfort and pre-disaster routines, which may lower anxiety and stress.
Parents who are stressed, ill, or malnourished can still breastfeed or chestfeed.

Barriers to breastfeeding during a disaster:

Lack of lactation support, whether it is a new mother, or a mother who has just weaned a baby.
Being away from home - displaced or having to relocate.
Being separated from family and other people who usually support the mother.
Lack of privacy, security, comfort, dim lights, and quiet in emergency shelters.

Strategies for breastfeeding during an emergency

Head to safety first.
Reduce stress.
- Relaxation helps letdown.
- Stress will not dry up or spoil milk.
- Skin to skin will keep baby calm and warm and promote your milk supply.
When without power, hand express and cup feed if needed.
- Breastfeed often to make more milk and comfort baby.
- YouTube Dr. Jack Newman Cup Feeding

Adapted from: La Leche League International Eight Strategies for Breastfeeding During a Natural Disaster

Handling and storage of human milk:

Freshly expressed milk can be stored in a:

Breastmilk bag.
Clean jar with a lid.
Clean cup with a lid.

Freshly expressed milk can be stored:

At room temperature for four to six hours.
In a cooler with ice packs for up to 24 hours.

How to include breastfeeding dyads in emergency planning.

Preparedness

Train emergency workers how to support infants and young children in emergencies.
Build partnerships with community partners.
- Healthcare providers and lactation support providers
- State, local, and cultural breastfeeding coalitions
- Public health programs such as head start, family home visiting, WIC, etc.
- Federal, state, tribal, and local emergency relief organizations
- Human milk banks
Develop a local lactation resource list.
Have up-to-date policies which address the protection, promotion, and support of breastfeeding in emergencies.
Disseminate policies and guidance to relevant partners and stakeholders. Coordinate communication in advance of an emergency.
- Ensure that existing emergency policies don’t directly or inadvertently promote infant formula to breastfeeding families.
A communication strategy should provide a framework with accompanying implementation plan. Key considerations include policy guidance dissemination; messaging to the affected population on services available and on infant and young children feeding (IYCF) practices; adapted messaging for target groups in the relief effort (e.g. military, volunteer groups and civil society groups); press releases; monitoring media coverage; and adapted messaging for different media (e.g. radio, mobile phone, social media).

Response

Conduct a rapid needs assessment with families to gather information about individual needs and additional information on breastfeeding, formula, and feeding mode: Rapid Needs Assessment Intake Form (PDF).
Assess shelter conditions: CDC disaster shelter assessment.
Keep families together.
Create safe, comfortable, and quiet lactation spaces for families.
Ensure access to healthcare providers with lactation experience and include International Board Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) as part of your emergency relief team.
Provide additional water and food for lactating parents.
Families with small children may need additional social and psychological support.
Support continued feeding at the breast/chest or using hand expression if no electricity or equipment is available.
- Educate about the safe storage and preparation of human milk.
- Provide a clean space to wash breast pump kits and infant feeding supplies.
- Ensure access to cleaning items such as a washbasin, dish soap, cleaning brushes, clean water, and a mesh drying bag.
Make disposable cups available for infant feeding. Bottles and cups are hard to clean in a shelter environment.
Give ready-to-use infant formula in a disposable cup as an alternative of last resort.
- Don’t routinely provide formula to all infants during an emergency.
- Formula donations should be distributed only after a feeding assessment.
- Safe formula preparation is essential for infant safety.

Recovery

Take a trauma-informed approach to care during emergency response and recovery efforts.
Teach families stress-reducing strategies.
Help families connect with their health care providers and other social services to ensure their nutritional, physical, and mental health needs will be met.
Work to facilitate access to pasteurized donor human milk when breastfed infants do not have access to their mothers' milk.
Connect families with lactation support to help resume breastfeeding if disrupted.
Ensure families of infants dependent on formula have infant formula, feeding supplies such as cups or bottles and nipples, and cleaning supplies.
Conduct post disaster assessment to identify gaps in care and where needs still exist.

What can agencies do?

Work with emergency planning staff to include breastfeeding before emergencies happen. See How to include breastfeeding dyads in emergency planning: Preparedness above for ideas of what to include. Consider how WIC will be involved in an emergency response.
Have a plan to support participants over the phone. See Strategies for breastfeeding during an emergency above for some talking points.

Resources:
Supporting Breastfeeding During Challenging Times (PDF)
Relactation: Topic of the month (PDF)
Combination feeding Nutrition Education Card (PDF)

Connect participants to peers for additional support if a peer program is available.
Have breast pumps available for those without power or who have lost their pump. See the Breast Pumps: Orders and Claims Process for more information.

Utilize resources such as Help me connect and Zip milk to find lactation resources in your area.

Examples of WIC projects/activities

Minnesota Breastfeeding Coalition and Minnesota Department of Health Food Pantry Partnership
MBC and MDH partnered with food pantries when parts of Minneapolis experienced a food access emergency in the summer of 2020 due to the compounded effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest after the murder of George Floyd.

This partnership sent letters to food shelves offering materials and support to promote and support breastfeeding. This intervention was developed to reduce formula distribution from food shelves to breastfeeding families during emergencies.

Birthmark Doulas Emergency Preparedness Program
New Orleans Breastfeeding Center and Birthmark doulas developed the Infant Ready program. This program provides an Infant Ready Training on perinatal emergency preparedness, safe infant and young child feeding in emergencies, educational materials, and an emergency feeding kit.

Jefferson County Colorado Public Health Emergency Planning
Jefferson Public health developed an infant and young child feeding in emergencies preparedness plan and resources, trained and coordinated volunteers in lactation support and created shelter kits to support breastfeeding families. Jefferson shared a Google drive with resources and information to replicate their work: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oG9pALc80d-cCWeJhNUVnm-4b_bOXKK1

Breastfeeding Emergency Preparedness Kits
To increase support for breastfeeding families and infant nutrition, Peoria, IL WIC developed an Emergency Preparedness Kit and Infant Feeding Plan in the event of an emergency or disaster.

Free Lactation Clinic (PDF)
Delaware County WIC in Ohio created access to breastfeeding support during a national formula shortage by establishing a free lactation clinic.

How to support the breastfeeding infant in an emergency while in childcare (PDF)
Checklist to support emergency planning in childcare environments.