>I think that seeing these very tender moments before the birth could be
>more emotionally motivating to mothers to give breastfeeding a try AND give
>the idea that bf immediately after birth is promoted by the hospital.
>
>What do you all think?
>
>Gina Nigro in Madrid

I use a snippet of the Norwegian Breastfeeding Matters video sold in Canada
by INFACT for just this reason. I usually use it to end the class. The
parents lean forward in their seats and are completely drawn into the
video. I run it through the first latch scenes, the returning to the room
scene and always include the scene with the father cuddling the newborn on
his bare chest. Parents love it. I usually comment after the father scene
that father's role includes teaching that love and food are not the same
thing. Dads lap it up.  We are working very hard to ensure all of the
prenatal classes are 'partner friendly' Where at all possible we choose
videos with the partners present and playing an involved role. We put up
posters showing fathers interacting with their children. It is a learning
process but we are getting good partner attendance and the evaluations are
coming back with good results.  In our situation prenatals are free and
universal access. We run a couple of different variations of series and
nurses will provide one on one support in high risk situations. This is in
addition to HBP our pregnancy outreach equivalent of WIC.

I had an interesting moment during a consult today. Babe is 3 days. Very
anxious mom. Mom fed 1st child once but 'it bit so I never let it near me
again' This time she intends to breastfeed because 'Things have changed.
EVERYONE breastfeeds now. You see them in McDonalds in Walmart;at HBP just
EVERYWHERE!  It is obviously the thing to do."

   Now she did end the consult by topping up 10cc when the baby fussed. She
later told me the fuss was due to a wet diaper, sigh. However this baby has
had many more feedings than her sibling and judging by the way it nurses
and mom's developing milk supply will probably be breastfed for some time
to come. It wasn't the 'teaching' that made the change it was the fact it
is becoming the societal norm!  So there is hope :))

Rhoda,
Vancouver Island.


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

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