1 Maternal concern: For breastfeeding moms, outages were warning to prep for future disasters.
When Jeanine ClarkKent heard about the PG&E power shutoffs, the first thing she thought about was her 4monthold baby Charlie — and a stash of frozen breast milk in her freezer.
The Oakland mother has been breastfeeding him, pumping twice a day, and freezing milk for when she goes back to 12hour shifts as a nurse in a few weeks. Her freezer represents hours of work and her hope to keep feeding her son with breast milk as long as possible — so she packed the milk into a cooler and sent it to her sister’s house in Emeryville for safekeeping.
“Of course I feel protective of my stash. I have to put it in the hands of someone I trust,” she said.
As PG&E cut power to more than a million on Wednesday, mothers scrambled to save frozen breast milk and keep pumping, which often requires electricity. Serena Meyer, registered nurse and internationally certified lactation consultant who runs the Bay Area Breastfeeding Support Group with 8,400 members, said there was “a furor over trying to save and store breast milk in the freezer.”
ClarkKent planned to get her breast milk back to Oakland late Friday. She didn’t end up losing power, but for her and other Bay Area moms, there is always a “next time.” A blackout. A wildfire. An earthquake.
“If it’s just us, we’re fine, but now we have somebody more
fragile and more susceptible,” ClarkKent said.
Around this time last year, she was pregnant with Charlie and thankful he wasn’t born yet to breathe in the toxic fumes from the Butte County Camp Fire, California’s deadliest and most devastating.
ClarkKent, 42, grew up in Lafayette and doesn’t want to move, but said she’s considered it.
“When I think about moving, I think about climate change and tsunamis and floods and what would be the safest place for my family. But we’re probably not going to go anywhere now,” she said.
PG&E power outages provoked panic for Bay Area moms, and raised questions of how they were prepared for possible disasters.
“Any mother of young children is in a constant state of concern for all possible outcomes,” said Gennie Gorback, a stayathome mom of a 3½yearold and a 7monthold in Orinda.
She lost power late Wednesday night until early evening Thursday. She packed two suitcases with enough clothes for five days and took her daughters to spend the night with her parents in Concord who had power. She had bought a fridge and freezer thermometer before the outage and was lucky to not have to throw away any frozen breast milk.
Gorback said in a way the outage was a good experience because “it helps us think ahead and realize what we need.”
“I’m getting more prepared for my family to be safe. There’s always been higher risks where I live. It is worse because there’s been droughts and changes in climate,” she said. “It’s always in the back of your mind.”
Those who grew up in the area exposed to emergencies said it was different preparing with a baby. Sarah Brusstar of Moraga, 32, remembers the Oakland firestorm of 1991.
“These are things I’ve grown up, if not expecting, certainly being aware of that’s a risk you take living somewhere like this. It’s a wonderful place to grow up and raise kids. There are tradeoffs anywhere,” she said.
Brusstar now has a 7weekold son and two months’ supply of frozen breast milk in her freezer ready for when she goes back to work in November. She was “scrambling for the better part of 24 hours to figure out how to keep everything cold,” and drove to Concord with the baby in tow to buy dry ice for a cooler to pack milk.
The family lost power Wednesday night and left to stay with friends in San Francisco. While they were gone, a 40acre fire broke out in Moraga, prompting the evacuation of about 150 families before dawn. On Thursday, the family returned home and power came back on in the early evening.
“This is obviously not a massive threat to our life and our livelihood, but it is an impact on how we plan to feed our son,” Brusstar said. “Our family is incredibly lucky to have every resource to plan for this kind of thing.”
When Concord mom Amy Havea heard about the power outages, her greatest concern wasn’t herself, but her lowerincome family and friends. If the power went out, she was prepared to grab her 2monthold and 1yearold and the breast milk in her freezer and head to the nearest relatives’ house where she would use a manual breast pump if need be.
But she knows not everyone has that option.
“If you think about lowincome moms or especially single moms without access to everything, they’re not going to haul their baby and breast milk on AC Transit to get to wherever, even if they have somewhere to go,” she said.
The outage didn’t end up affecting her home, but it reminded her to be prepared for any emergency. Her family in the area used to have an emergency plan with everyone’s contact and first responder information printed out, but they let it expire.
“When nothing goes wrong, no one plans, which is such a bummer,” Havea, 37, said. “It’s too bad that it takes something happening for people to get their act together.”
Other moms said the outage brought out the best in the community — a hopeful sign for if there ever was a real disaster.
Gorback said strangers with generators were offering to help one another. An El Cerrito mom posted in her neighborhood social media app Nextdoor Tuesday that her house would have power with room in the freezer for milk and a place for moms to pump.
“It’s really nice to see everyone come together,” Gorback said. “It’s not even a real emergency, but it’s nice to know we can help each other.”