The four found out that a conference on breastfeeding was going to be held in Washington, D.C. They got some funding together and sent Myrick and Currie to the conference.

“A couple of us, as Hershey said, were told we were going to get paid,” Myrick said. “So we got our flight and I think we had a hotel for a couple of days. The conference was very, very nice. The African American Breastfeeding Alliance. I don’t think they had chapters back then. But we created chapters once we got back here. It was in Washington, D.C. It was very lovely. A woman by the name of Kathy Barber was the founder and guru of it. I also think they had other things out in California.”

The vehicle they chose for this journey was the African American Breastfeeding Alliance. They came together as a movement was beginning to form around the issue of African American breastfeeding. But they had to figure out how to organizationally approach the problem.

“Of the four of us, I am the registered dietitian among three nurses when we began,” Franklin-Lawson said. “I was the reluctant one to join this organization. When the idea of we should have our own chapter came up, not only did they go to Washington, D.C., Milwaukee had established a breastfeeding alliance chapter. And Merta and Gina went and visited there. They came back and we discussed how different Dane County was to Milwaukee and we should have our own organization and not be a part of Milwaukee. There was an African American Breastfeeding Alliance of Milwaukee. And the WIC director headed it. This was way before Dalvery. They establish an organization. And we did not feel that we fit with them.”

The African American Breastfeeding Alliance of Dane County was formed. The formal organization allowed the group to better interact with the healthcare system and to take control of their own destiny with control over funds that they would raise.

“I became a part of this group because when the health department would write grants for getting money to increase the rate of African Americans, they were using my credentials,” Franklin-Lawson said. “But we had no say in how that was to be spent. And in establishing our own group, we had control. I was telling Hershey as we look at the minutes of our last of our early meetings, we were so much organized and well thought out how we were planning things. As professionals, our group went forward. For me, since food was my professional orientation, the Dietetic Association always emphasized that food is my business. It was just one other aspect for me of focusing on one area of food for one individual. We were independent and raised our own money. Sometimes we got rolled into grants of departments. Sometimes we got donations.”

AABA of Dane County then created a range of services to provide information and support for the mothers. One thing they created was a newsletter.

“I enjoyed the times when we used to write a monthly newsletter and it was mailed to houses versus electronically because we got stories from people, ‘Oh, I finished breastfeeding, but I gave your newsletter to so and so,’” Franklin-Lawson said. “And when you look back at the old newsletters, I’m amazed at some of the topics that we chose to write about, that we were always right on with the science and the facts and did it in such a way to draw people in. Out first newsletter went out to less than 20 people. But by the time we stopped mailing them, we were sending out 425 newsletters. But as costs got in the way, that’s why we switched to electronic copies. But we don’t get that type of feedback with electronic versions. My goal for breastfeeding is I didn’t breastfeed long. And I always thought it was easy and found out it was difficult. And if I could help even one person have a better experience than I had, it was worthwhile.”

The assistance and support were crucial for many African American mothers who wanted to nurse their babies, but it seemed the system was discouraging them from doing so. Tamara Thompson, now a member of AABA, had recently moved to Madison from Chicago, far away from the chief support system, her mother.

“My baby was two-weeks old,” Thompson said. “I was determined to breastfeed her despite it being very difficult and having challenges and not really knowing where to go or what to do. But I knew that I could access lactation care through the WIC program. So I walked into a WIC program and I explained my situation, that I was from a different city and I wanted to get signed up. And I really wanted to breastfeed. And they gave me a postcard that there was a support group for African American women who were breastfeeding and I thought that was amazing. And I received a community. I received a family being so far away from my mom. I was able to still get access to mothering. And I remember how much the women at this table and a few others poured into me and informed me and taught me the right posture to sit in while I held my baby and how to heal my broken skin and how to sooth her. And what foods I could avoid to avoid gassiness. I got so much information and so much support. And I enjoyed sitting in a circle of other women who were going through the journey like I was. And our babies would crawl on the carpet together and get into trouble together and eat the snacks and the refreshments. And we would laugh and joke and find ourselves in conversation that started out with breastfeeding, but we ended up talking about needing a new car or we talked about what laundry detergent was the best. But it gave me this sense of being, of belonging. And it was at the very end of this building in the original Harambee Center. And I remember feeling that as I saw the women who sat in the circle change over time and some had set a goal and didn’t reach it, I was curious why. And I saw new parents come. They might have been still pregnant. And they were curious, but not really sure if they wanted to do it. And I saw how these mothers sat there and encouraged them. And I thought, ‘I’m breastfeeding a baby. Let me show you how I do this. Here’s how I cook my soup. Here are the first foods that I give if I’m going to introduce solids. So it naturally became a part of something that I wanted to do, help other women who were like me.”

AABA also had to be organized in order to interface with the healthcare system. Not just anyone gets access to patients.

“I worked for a major HMO for many years,” said Daphne Daniels, a nurse and doula. “With that, we had a memorandum of understanding with the public health department and WIC. Through working with members and making contact with them primarily at Access Wingra, Access Evjue and Access Erdman clinics over the years, we built and gained trust through the HMO and the members that we assisted. Through the HMO and the WIC program, trust was a must when working with patients and clients. We had to get their buy-in.”