Empowerment Through Diapers

Did you ever wonder what the point of a diaper is? A diaper is so common in America

that it is difficult to find sources for why to use diapers. Many people would gravitate to the

answer that the diaper is there to hold in a mess until a parent can change the baby. This answer

is not necessarily incorrect, however, what if the primary purpose was for something that was

even more important—a hidden, more essential reason for using diapers. What if the true reason

for using diapers was empowerment?

BACKGROUND

According to New Kids-Center, the average newborn will have approximately 10 diaper

changes daily, a baby that is 1 to 5 months old will average 8 to 10 changes and after five

months, a baby will average 8 changes daily. 1

Conservatively, this equals 2,790 diaper changes in one year and let’s say that one has

gotten really good at changing a diaper and he or she averages 1.5 minutes per change. Over the

course of the year that equates to 4,185 minutes or 2.9 days and that’s if one is really good at

changing a diaper. Chances are it is a lot longer than 2.9 days especially depending on the type of

mess it is and whether or not the baby is cooperative.

And now imagine that you have to use a worn rag, tied around the baby, acting as a

makeshift diaper or even worse, you have no diaper at all. A mother goes from a 1.5 minute

change to a lot longer. The mess is no longer contained and the baby needs to be thoroughly

washed (and perhaps the mother does too). And let’s say this mother is not caring for one baby,

but perhaps 10 babies. Suddenly, the time spent changing inadequate diapers becomes

overwhelming.

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 The article “Health, Social, and Economic Outcomes Experienced by Families as a Result

of Receiving Assistance from a Community-Based Diaper Bank” by Kelley E. C. Massengale,

Jennifer Toller Erausquin, and Michelle Old outlines these issues and more associated with

inadequate diapering. Specifically, they found that almost every aspect of the family life: social,

economic, emotional, and physical were impacted.2 The authors make an argument for

everything being connected to diapers. When there are an inadequate amount of diapers, changes

happen less even if the diaper is soiled and when that occurs, babies break out into diaper rash

resulting in less sleep for babies and of course, less sleep for the parents. 3 When parents get less

sleep, stress is amplified more than need be.

However, inadequate diapering as it relates to women and not just both parents was

analyzed in the article “Examining Material Hardship in Mothers: Associations of Diaper Need

and Food Insufficiency with Maternal Depressive Symptoms” by Anna E. Austin and Megan V.

Smith. In their article, the authors cited a survey that found that “30% of mothers reported diaper

need and that diaper need was significantly associated with high levels of self-reported mental

distress in mothers.”4

Jake’s Diapers and Real Hope For Haiti are combatting this issue inadequate diapering.

Jake’s Diapers’ mission is to provide diapers to those in need, so much so that the people they

serve typically in the past had to choose between food and diapers. Real Hope For Haiti has

several different goals however one of them is to meet the medical needs of the Haitians.

Real Hope For Haiti operates a rescue center that focuses on children and their medical

ailments. Many times these medical issues are illnesses obtained due to the socio-economic

backgrounds of the kids. Diseases such as Kwashiorkor and Cholera are very common among

the people of Haiti, especially the children. Among other symptoms, both of these diseases for

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example are exasperated by poor sanitation and hygiene. If a mother has only inadequate diapers

to use or no diapers at all, these diseases can spread easily to other kids or to adults.

As groups try to combat the issue of inadequate diapering. Real Hope For Haiti in

conjunction with Jake’s Diapers is able to send volunteers to Haiti to assist in the efforts to build

community and treat the Haitians for their ailments. Jake’s Diapers send kits and packages of

diapers with the people it sends to Haiti. To date, Jake’s Diapers has sent over 90,000 diapers to

Haiti. Besides for the volunteers, local Haitian nannies help tend to the kids daily and each nanny

may be responsible for over 10 kids.

EMPOWERMENT

The people who have volunteered on these trips have spoken about the impact of these

diapers and what they do for the lives of the Haitian women in particular. They were very honest

about the impact of diapers on the lives of the women there.

Katie Meyer who recently visited Haiti for the first time, had a lot to say about the impact

of diapers. Katie said that when it came down to it, diapers represented dignity for the mother

who was caring for the kids. If a mother had proper diapers to use on her children, it meant that

she was not confined to the home. It also meant she (along with the kids) could leave and visit

the market or church or even go to the clinic if they had to. The mother could leave knowing that

if one of her children did have an accident, it wouldn’t equal a mess that would require them to

go back home. Katie said this dignity and freedom was very empowering for the women. It was

life-changing. For what Katie saw in Haiti, having diapers went beyond simply having

something to hold in a mess.

Stephanie Bower, Executive Director of Jake’s Diapers, agreed with Katie’s comments.

Bowers stated when women do not have to worry about an accident occurring without a diaper, it

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was a “freeing feeling.” Women could go the market without fear of being embarrassed by a

potential mess. The power to move and travel without that fear is empowering according to

Bowers.

Holly Mitchener has been traveling to Haiti since 2010 and also had strong feelings on

the empowering nature of diapers. She said diapers represented access—a choice a mother never

had before. Mothers could now have clean clothes and would have to spend less time on clean

up. That time could be used to educate their kids or do other things to better their own lives.

Again, empowerment to choose how to spend their time and live their lives.

To be clear the empowering nature of the diaper helps both fathers and mothers who

change children, but helps mothers even more so. According to the UN Women, a division of the

United Nations that is devoted to gender equality, “women do 2.6 times more unpaid care and

domestic work than men.”5 The International Center for Research on Women actually has it as

high as ten times more.6 Additionally, the International Center for Research on Women also

surveyed men and women in different countries around the world and found specifically when it

comes to diaper changing, women greatly outperformed men. 7

When you couple this fact with the fact that the nannies who work with Real Hope For

Haiti have several children to care for daily, the amount of time diapers can save them is almost

impossible to measure. As Katie, Stephanie and Holly argued above, the time spent equals

dignity and freedom and this leads to empowerment.

Additionally, the amount of diseases these nannies are susceptible to greatly decreases

with sanitary diapers. Where before nannies had to be concerned not just about the babies

becoming sick due to poor hygiene but also themselves becoming sick, now with proper diapers,

they can worry a little less.

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 Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has talked extensively about how

important birth control is and in a recent TED Talk—how simple and non-controversial it really

is and how empowering it can be for women. 8 However, as Gates points out, though it should be

non-controversial, it remains a topic of scrutiny around the world. In many ways, diapers are

similar to birth control. A powerful tool that empowers women, however, the issue of diapering

faces different challenges than that of birth control.

Where birth control still carries a stigma with it in different parts of the world as Gates

points out, diapering doesn’t carry a stigma but more of supply issue. Getting diapers and

supplies to mothers continues to be an issue especially in nations such as Haiti. Using diapers

themselves does not seem to be controversial however dedicating funds and supplies seems to be

a low priority on the lists of many nations around the world and as a result that negatively

impacts the empowerment of women

Governments around the world do not view diapers as a tool of empowerment but as a

matter of convenience. Even in the United States, according to the Good+ Foundation, there are

no federal or state programs that specifically allocate money to providing diapers. 9 Good+

Foundation also raises an excellent point that if mothers cannot afford diapers than mothers

cannot leave their children at daycare to go to school or to even go to work to pay for diapers.

This point was also reaffirmed by the article “Organizational and Health Promotion Benefits of

Diaper Bank and Community-Based Organization Partnerships.” 10

Additionally, the authors of “Health, Social, and Economic Outcomes Experienced by

Families as a Result of Receiving Assistance from a Community-Based Diaper Bank” make the

point that when diapers are provided to families in need this “allowed parents and caregivers to

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serve as productive members of society by attending work, and it contributed toward the

accomplishment of educational goals by playing a role in parents’ school attendance.” 11

Nicole Tilot also visited Haiti on behalf of Jake’s Diapers and echoed the information

stated in the above article. Nicole stated that as many as nine women now have jobs in Haiti

because Jake’s Diapers provided diapers for their children and these women were now able to go

out and get jobs and bring home extra income. Nicole said the diapers empowered these women

into careers.

Gates points out that when the idea of birth control and the actual birth control gets

introduced to a population, it generally will sweep through the region due to its power. The same

could be said about diapers. Katie and Holly both spoke about how in awe the local women in

Haiti were of the diapers they were given. In fact, Katie said at one point, a local lady asked

Katie with skepticism, “you’re not simply going to give us these diapers, are you?” This local

woman viewed the diapers as a commodity that was worth its weight in gold. Perhaps has

valuable as birth control itself.

Diapers empower mothers as much as birth control and without diapers, mothers are

forced to stay inside, use unsanitary methods to diaper and risk disease for themselves and their

children. The diaper may appear to be just another cosmetic supply to someone who does not

have kids, but to the average mother in Haiti, it is the equivalent of a car, a vaccine and as a

washer all-in-one. The empowering nature cannot be overstated.

1 “How Many Diapers Does a Baby Use a Day?” - New Kids Center,
www.newkidscenter.com/How-Many-Diapers-A-Day.html.
2
Massengale, Kelley, et al. “Health, Social, and Economic Outcomes Experienced by Families
as a Result of Receiving Assistance from a Community-Based Diaper Bank.” Maternal and

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Child Health Journal, vol. 21, no. 10, 17 Oct. 2017, pp. 1985–1994, 1986., doi:10.1007/s10995-
017-2317-9.
3
Id.

4 Austin, Anna E. “Examining Material Hardship in Mothers: Associations of Diaper Need and
Food Insufficiency with Maternal Depressive Symptoms.” Health Equity, vol. 1, no. 1, 1 Sept.
2017, pp. 217–133, 128., doi: 10.1089/heq.2016.0023.
5 “Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.” UN Women,
www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs/sdg-5-gender-equality.
6
https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Evolving-Men-Initial-Results-from-the-
International-Men-and-Gender-Equality-Survey-IMAGES-1.pdf, page 22.
7
https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Evolving-Men-Initial-Results-from-the-
International-Men-and-Gender-Equality-Survey-IMAGES-1.pdf, page 32-33.

8 “Let's Put Birth Control Back on the Agenda.” by Melinda Gates,