I too was amused by Esther Grunis` message of 17 years ago.  But not so 
amused when I consider that in the hospitals where she works and I work not 
much has changed.  On a recent hospital tour with my prenatal class we 
visited the "newborn nursery" where babies are kept at night if mothers 
don`t opt for full rooming-in (and most don`t because their 
mothers/sisters/sisters-in-law tell them they will be too tired!)
It was evening and a mother was returning her baby to the nursery, told the 
nurse she was tired and without hesitation the nurse suggested giving 
bottles during the night so that "you will sleep better and have more milk 
in the morning."  No mention of problems of giving bottles so early or the 
engorgement she would suffer if she didn`t feed all night.
One of my clients asked about zero separation (the buzzword around here now 
as if we never thought of that before) and the same nurse replied that of 
course there was zero separation - she obviously had no idea what that 
meant.
So sadly, 17 years has not made much difference and so far we do not have 
one "baby-friendly" hospital in Israel.
How happy I was to visit a mother last week who had given birth in her 
parents` home.  She had agreed not to give birth in her own home as it was 
in a rather remote area and her parents lived within a short distance of 
hospitals.  One day after a wonderful normal birth in a birthing pool, she 
was sitting on the terrace of the apartment, well supported by cushions with 
a beautiful contented baby at the breast.  Her husband sat next to her and 
they both looked ecstatic.  With no hospital procedures, no drugs, no 
speeding up, no episiotomy, mother and baby were in tip-top condition. 
Instinctively this mother knew what to do.  Sitting in the spring sunshine, 
she gave the baby a few moments of exposure to prevent jaundice and in any 
case the continued breastfeeding and genuine zero separation would protect 
this baby anyway.
Home birth is made very difficult for mothers and midwives here but if our 
bureaucrats in the health ministry would just witness these contrasting 
scenes there is no way that they would allow such blatant sabotage of 
breastfeeding in hospitals or prevent low-risk women giving birth in optimal 
home conditions with experienced home midwives.
Wendy Blumfield
NCT Tutor Prenatal Teacher/Breastfeeding Counsellor
Founding President of the Israel Childbirth Education Centre which closed 
down for lack of funding.
Haifa, Israel 

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