Claudia says,
<< When I spoke to the
 Maternity Manager about the job description, she made it clear that her goal
 was healthy babies, not just breastfeeding.  She wants to ensure that no
 mother is "guilty" if she doesn't nurse and will want the LC to help teach
 the formula moms also. >>

Ahhh!  Excellent!  If you do it right, teaching formula feeding moms actually
takes longer than teaching breastfeeding moms, simply because you teach them
to formula feed the way they would breastfeed (breastfeeding being the norm).
 And you phrase it that way.  You don't do it tongue in cheek, though anyone
that has attended our 6 day program sees it done tongue in cheek by Carole
Peterson & Linda Kutner.  However, teaching formula feeding is a very good
idea, and gets the point across to the mothers about how difficult it is to
do it right to prevent illness in your infant.

Points to ponder:

Keeping a log of all the batch numbers of formula you purchase in case of
recalls

Switching arms when feeding

Holding skin to skin

Sterilizing bottles & nipples since the formula is dead and has no protection
from bacterial growth

Making sure when mom goes out w/ bottles of formula that she either uses
ready to feed that is not opened until ready to feed, or that she takes
powder and water separate and mixes after at the time she is ready to feed.

Or makes sure her diaper bag is kept at 40 degrees to prevent spoilage.

That she throws any formula away that has been out of the refrigerator for
more than an hour

That she carefully read the labels EVERY time because the instructions change

That she understands the importance of what kind of water she uses:  how long
to run the tap water if she lives in an old building or a new building or at
the top of an apartment building, or has well water.  And how long to boil it
so as to not concentrate the lead.  Or what kind to buy and how long that can
remain open before she has to dump it.

How to know if the baby is sensitive to the formula you are giving her.  What
to do in case the baby is sensitive to all the formulas.

Yes -- lots and lots of things for mothers to know about formula feeding that
we never talk about.

If we really were doing our jobs right, we would all be infant feeding
specialists.

No mother ever need feel guilty about her choice to bottle feed -- she simply
has to understand the ramifications of that choice, and how to do it as
carefully as possible.

Jan

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