I would like to know how you other lactnetters deal with difficult moms and
other staff who acuse you of "pushing  breastfeeding."  I work as an OTR in
the NICU helping babies learn to feed, help the moms learn to breastfeed
whenever I can, and when I see a mom bottle feeding a baby expressed breast
milk, I tell her that the sooner the baby goes directly on the breast, the
sooner s/he will learn to breastfeed, even if they are not doing well on the
bottle, that it is not necessary to wait until they do well on the bottle,
etc, etc. And then I suggest that they ask their MD for an order to let the
baby try to breastfeed. (In this unit, I sometimes think the baby needs an
order even to stool.)  I just heard that a mom I worked with last week (Class
A diabetic mom, baby born at 30 weeks, saw him at 32 weeks, poor tone,
semi-alert,) who was bottle feeding EBM complained that I "bamboozeled" her
into breastfeeding and was "pushing" her  into breastfeeding before she was
ready! This is a very difficult mom anyway, and unfortunately, she complained
long and loud, and this went very high up in the hospital. Unfortunately, I
think this is Patient Satisfaction Week at the hospital. Very bad timing.
 She is still bottle feeding EBM but told me she does not want to breastfeed,
and I have been told to not talk to her at all.  I try always to be polite
and tactful and encouraging and  educational at the same time. I know these
moms are stressed out.   But now I am being cautioned NOT to "push moms into
breastfeeding"! Am I wrong to assume that if a mom is bottle feeding EBM that
she wants to breastfeed? How else can I know if I don't ask her? And why do I
need to look pushy for trying to educate about something so important?  It is
very important for these premies to get on the breast as soon as possible. So
 why do I have to apologize for suggesting this? I am REALLYfuming- And the
NURSES all agreed that I was being "insensitive to the mom".

Thanks for letting me let off steam- on the one hand I hope I don't get
fired, but on the other hand this lets me see just how un-breastfeeding
friendly this envoronment really is. And I had thought that I was getting
somewhere with this staff.....

Debbie Rabin, OTR, CLC
Los Angeles, CA