I try to take care about being specific in my postings since CT is a 
small sate and everyone knows which hospitals are "Baby-Friendly". I 
was actually on the committee that wrote the breastfeeding policy that 
enabled the hospital in which I worked (for about 60 hours per week 
during much of that time, including being on-call for 24 hours a day, 7 
days a week) to become "BF". I do not post about things I know nothing 
about. One of the issues we went round and round on for hours on end in 
meeting after meeting (meetings that included docs, nurses and other 
staff) was the fact that there was no accountability and that this 
would mean that our policy had no teeth. I am very aware of all aspects 
of the politics, of the medicalization that interferes no matter how 
much some nurses try to support families, and on and on. But, in the 
end, we all knew that we would not change practices very much just b/c 
we were "BF", even though most wanted to very much.

While "BF" may be the best we have, I do not consider this an excuse to 
decide that it is good enough as it is. It is not disrespectful of all 
of the hard work that has gone into "BF" to recognize that it can 
indeed work against itself, when, like so many other good ideas, it has 
no accountability. I would not have spent so much time on it myself if 
I didn't think it could be a powerful tool for the benefit of families 
(I was the only person in all of those meetings not paid for my time 
there). I still believe that it could work, but that does not mean that 
it is playing out that way. This is what mothers tell me many times--"I 
expected that because I was in a "BF" hospital and I saw an IBCLC that 
I had done everything I could to make bf work". Why wouldn't a mom 
rightfully think that? I do that we as parents are resposible for our 
decisions, but you don't know what you don't know. IMO, all hospital 
practices should be designed as if the experience of the human infant 
is real and matters very much, because it does. I do not know how we 
can even use the term "BF" if we do not mean much more than enabling 
breastfeeding, b/c we now have so much more information about the 
nature and needs of human infants, and we are in no way friendly to 
them.

Someone recently posted about the study done in Italy about 7 or 8 
eight years ago about the migration of stem cells from the fetus to the 
brain of the mother during gestation. Actually, migration begins at 
about 6 weeks, with a dense migration taking place at birth--no matter 
whether the baby is premature or born vaginally or by cesarean. This is 
the kind of information, that were it common knowledge, would have to 
change the way we treat babies in this country--we could not possibly 
understand the nature of the human in utero and at birth and continue 
the barbaric practices we do--inductions, drugging, cutting out of 
mothers bodies, washing, pricking, separation form mothers and so many 
other inhumane, disrespectful practices. From some people's 
perspective, we have to live with the system and do the best we can. 
Then I would ask you this--what happens when babies don't feed because 
they are unable to turn off the sympathetic response they are having to 
the trauma of their births? What happens when the infant's first 
experience of the world is abandonment by the mother (his experiencem, 
not the mother's intention), what happens when her first experience is 
pain and disregard for her communication?, what is the price that is 
paid when the hormonal melieu of birth is completely circumvented so 
that the mother feels she has never bonded (and perhaps she never has), 
what happens when the biochemical interplay that literally turns on our 
humanity is disregarded? When all of this is going on, I am surprised 
that any baby bf's or that any mother bonds at all. Fortunately, we do, 
but really against all odds. Shouldn't we be concsiously working to 
lower the odds for families? I wonder why we do not know these 
things--why we do talk about them? Do we not care? Are we too 
overwhelmed? Do they push our own buttons about own own births or own 
parenting? The information is out there--I read the stem cell study 
when it was first published. Do we think it doesn't relate to 
breastfeeding?  It does. Everything to do with the heart of the mother 
and baby relates to breastfeeding.

I am not saying that we can win every battle--I do not even think we 
should be fighting battles. I do think we owe it to babies to be better 
educated, though and to educate everyone else, all of the time. As an 
example, when I tell parents how important it is NOT to wash babies 
before they bf--most parents do not allow it. That's a simple example. 
How many things like that could we do that give power to families? I am 
tired of the blaming of parents. Parents are blatantly lied to everyday 
in childbirth and breastfeeding classes and by HCPs who do not want 
them to know the dangers of their interventions. We get so angry at 
parents being lied to by AIM companies, but go on to defend the lies 
when they come from the institutions and systems we represent. Does 
this make sense--shouldn't parents at least be more suspicious of the 
lies from marketing companies than from medical institutions? They are 
given misinfomation by people who do not know what they are talking 
about and will not say so.  I do not suggest that I know all of the 
answers, but I think any conspiracy of ignorance and silence would be 
just as destructive as the marketing from any AIM company.Why should 
they worry about us--we continue to create an environment in which 
their products will continue to thrive?

I wonder why we cannot honestly look at where our systems in the US 
fail families? I understand that most of us work within these 
systems--but we are not the systems themselves. We are the individuals 
who have the capacity to bear witness, to hold the rights of the human 
beings involved as more sacred than the structure of our systems. We 
can only be blamed when we are not responsible by our own choice.
Jennifer Tow, IBCLC, CT, USA

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html