Dear Lana, it is up to you as a health care professional to tell the truth
about infant feeding so that your clients can make informed decision. It is
not up to you to protect them from the truth, in a patriarchal fashion, so
that they will be have a blunt edge of truth, ..so that they will not
realize that it is a very important health care decision that is being
made.  I do not believe that that it would be wise to limit information on
the off chance that we might "make" someone feel guilty should it not work out.

Preparation is the best defense. Give accurate information as it is known
to exist. Promote breastfeeding. And then protect and support it after the
babies are born.  Mothers are often mothering in isolation, not a normal
situation for humans, who are, in reality, pack animals....

Doing this kind of info-censorship is like preparing for a famine by
starving, just so you know what it feels like.

Not sensible. Your colleague needs to rethink her argument. Kathleen PS See
the pieces on guilt that I have posted yesterday.

At 01:51 AM 7/28/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear Lacnetters,
>
>I am hoping someone has information on breastfeeding and postpartum
>depression.  A collegue has suggested I limit the amount of
>pro-breastfeeding information I share at my prenatal group so as to not give
>mothers unrealistic expectations about breastfeeding.  The point was that
>mothers that cannot or choose not to breastfeed for one reason or another
>may feel a great deal of guilt, leading to postpartum depression if I
>continue to push the benefits of breastfeeding at every meeting.  There is a
>1984 study that showed decreased incidence of postpartum depression in
>mothers who breastfed.  I wonder if this proves her point that mothers that
>cannot or choose not to breastfeed are likely to encounter more post partum
>depression from the guilt that ensues.   I feel it is very important to
>share all the benefits of breastfeeding so mothers make informed decisions,
>perhaps being more willing to stick it out if the going gets tough.
>However, I don't want to contribute to an increased incidence of postpartum
>depression.  What to do.. What to do.
>
>Lana Hergott
>Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program


Kathleen B. Bruce, BSN, IBCLC co-owner Lactnet
Independent Consultant
http://homepages.together.net/~kbruce/kbblact.html
LACTNET Archives http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lactnet.html


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