well, on the positive side, i went to breastfeeding rounds today at a local
hospital, met a 4th year student there, and took her with me to see three
clients. she plans to be a family practitioner. wherever she decides to
practice will be a lucky town indeed. she knew a great deal about
breastfeeding, having taken a two week elective in it. in fact, she knows
more than many doctors (the bad side).

a local doctor that doesn't even work with infants or children or mothers,
breastfed her three children and decided to get the medical school to offer
more breastfeeding education. the two weeks the student spends includes going
to various hospitals, the milk bank, bosom buddies (the store of sue p. who
is lurking on here, i just know it, hi sue), and then to observe someone i
private practice - me. i am so pleased.

however, it is not a minute too soon. i saw a client in a local hospital on
sunday, who had been given a pump right after the first successful feeding
(baby all of twelve hours old), told to "pump to make her milk come in
faster." when she pumped, she saw a pink tinge to the milk, and called the
nurse, who said "oh, i've NEVER seen that before! i will have to call the
doctor right away!" the doctor came and said, "i've NEVER seen that before,
you have to quit breastfeeding right away and dry up so we can run some
tests!"

what tests, the mother wanted to know. was it cancer? the doctor said, well,
i didn't say cancer, but that is one of the options (like this is a menu to
choose from?). the mother freaked out, because HER mother has had
premenopausal breast cancer (survived, though). i took the mother a page from
lawrence with the information about rusty pipe syndrome, gave her a long pep
talk while the father sat there feeding the baby formula, and left. she
couldn't decide what to do. thought she better have an ultrasound the next
day before deciding whether to continue nursing.

i left a note for the doctor. it was extremely short, because i couldn't say
what i felt like saying, of course.

another breastfeeding relationship sabotaged with lack of information.

carol brussel IBCLC
denver CO

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