I was born in Mexico, had my babies in the US, having immigrated at age 19. ?I was that mother who was clueless that the milk was inspite of obvious engorgement (!) ?I had a few things going for me. ?I spoke English well, I was educated, I had some dedicated nurses at Northside hospital in Atlanta who worked for hours with me to get my baby to latch again after one bottle in the nursery (took 10 hours. . .call that what you wish, but that's a different thread!) ?
While I agree that prenatal education is important, education is not enough to overcome faulty cultural expectations/beliefs. ?You cannot argue anyone out of their cultural beliefs. ?What you can do is practice evidence based interventions. ?Become baby friendly. ?If there are no bottles around, then moms have to feed their babies. ?Help moms with position and latch, talk to them about colostrum, teach hand expression, show them their beautiful milk , don't just tell them. ?
I've asked women who have had births in Mexico and yet insist on giving bottles the first days how they did it there. . . they just fed their babies, and cup fed formula if there was a need to supplement. If there had been bottles available they would have used them. But because they were in a 'backward' nation, they didn't get them. ?So now they are giving birth here and the US knows better than their nations, and the US gives them a chance to do what they would have done in their countries had the formula/bottles been available as it is here. ?They may do "both" as a nod to breastfeeding being more convenient at night but choose to bottle feed during the day or when they are out. ?Some have even told me that that formula is 'better" and "stronger" than their milk but they apologetically breastfeed because they hate getting up at night to fix a bottle, blushing as they think of themselves as 'lazy' for doing this. ?Especially after 6 months. . . when many of them feel their milk is no good any more. So continuing education is important past the initial phases.
Now I work at WIC. And the changes that are coming are good. ?But moms will still be able to get formula if they want. ?Not as much as before, but if they want more, they'll just have to say they need more. ?Sure, it will change how much food mom is getting, but if they value the formula more than the breastmilk or food, they can just get the formula package. ?I'm curious to see what that is going to do to WIC breastfeeding rates. ?Here is a summary of the food packages in NC for those who want details: ?http://www.nutritionnc.com/wic/pdf/2009/MaximumMonthyAllowancesForFoodGuide02.pdf
Norma Escobar, IBCLC
Wilmington NC
***********************************************
Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome
|
