8/30/2010 We had a wonderful meeting at the Annual ILCA/USLCA conference this summer in San Antonio. This was the largest group of participants in MiLCA EVER! We had folks from all services and all regions. What we all have in common is the strong desire to support each other and provide education for the staff at all of the facilities that provide care for our military families.
Please join us and be patient with our growing pains. Our webmaster, Rodney Blythe, has built the website with a FORUM for discussions, a REPOSITORY for forms, handouts, important articles, a MEMBERSHIP page which we plan to add a paypal or googlepay button for your convenience in the future. We also hope to add a page with a list of LINKS to important sites that we've found. Right now, you can go to my website for links (www.tidewaterlactationgroup.com ) Everyone has something to share and we'd love to hear your ideas and what you've done at your facility. You can also email me anything you want added to the site. The FORUM has three threads on it right now. If you have trouble navigating it, let me know.
Because we now are an official chapter of USLCA, we do have bylaws that mirror theirs and a Policy and Procedure manual is in progress. If you have suggestions, please email me.
8/25/2010 Robyn's book "Breastfeeding in Combat Boots" is available now. They are trying to have them available at the NEX/PX/etc for the folks overseas. CONUS folks can order through Hale Publishing, Amazon, or directly through us. Robyn will even autograph it for you if you order through us!
Hope everyone had a wonderful summer....now back to school!!
1/20/2011 Attended the unveiling of the Surgeon General's Call to Action on Breastfeeding. Vice Admiral Regina Benjamin identified 5 areas where the US can improve in removing barriers for women and 20 specific steps. You can see them all at
www.surgeongeneral.gov . Additionally, there is a new magazine style information booklet for moms available free from
www.womenshealth.gov/pub/bf.cfm. It is offered in English and Spanish.
1/31/2011 If you haven't renewed your membership for the year, please consider doing so soon. I have to turn in the Chapter membership info to USLCA asap.
4/2/2011 I have just completed my Bachelors in Nursing at Hampton University. Commencement will be on Mother's Day, May 8th. Thanks to everyone for your support! Let me know who is going to the ILCA conference this summer. We have LOTS of work to do. I have completed a few CERP packages that MiLCA members can take advantage of. We also have the ability to conduct meetings via webinar through USLCA. Please contact me if you are interested in participating. I also have access to the Virginia BF Taskforce's down link for the USBC meetings. eif
7/15/2011 At the ILCA/USLCA conference in San Diego, having a great time. Met with a small group of former and future members today at lunch. We are looking for new board members and extra eyes to review our bylaws, etc. Even though alot has been accomplished, I apologize for not doing a better job of communicating this year. I hope that this next year will bring bigger and better projects and more sharing of information. It would be very helpful if our members would either participate on the "forum" or help us get an email string going. This is our forum for communication and sharing ideas and questions/answers. I think I can do an email string from this website but will have to learn how to accomplish that task!
We have a couple of CERP packages done and ready for a Webinar. We have also decided to change our "year" from the Jan/Dec of ILCA to an Aug/July year so we will be ready for Chapter renewal in Decembers. For those of you who have paid for 2011, you will automatically be extended to July 2012 (instead of Dec 2011). :-)
Off to another lecture! More later! eif
