Lisa,

I'm actually a trained teacher, and have conducted Government paid research 
into effective teaching in all sorts of classroom settings, so I have a few 
general tips.  I'd also be happy to discuss in email any specific types of 
lesson proforma that enoucourages student interaction and autonomy: people 
learn best when the are doing!    How they 'do' is dependent on who they 
are, and what you're trying to achieve.

Basic tips include: decide exactly what you want everyone in the room to 
come away with as a baseline: something clear and simple that can be 
achieved and retained by everyone - no matter their start point.  Most 
students, in any set up, are lucky to retain 10% of any 
lesson/talk/discussion.  So concentrate hard on less: most people try to do 
too much!

I'd consider something like: "The baby needs its mother first and foremost" 
as a basline, with an extension of "It's my job as staff to get out of the 
way of the mother and baby"  or "It's my job to get the mother and baby 
together fast".  You want everyone in the room to come out with the baseline 
message in their heads, and about 40% of the room to come out with the 
extended message in place too!  If you manage that - you're winning big 
style!

The human brain needs to revise/repeat information 5 times before a neural 
pathway is made that allows them access back to it.  So you should build in 
a five point repeat on your baseline info.  They should see it written, hear 
it spoken, and prefarably turn to each other and discuss it themselves.  If 
they do all three of these things, just mentioning it again, or seeing it 
again, should be enough that most will remember it.

Once you have your baseline messages decided, you can build up a slightly 
more complex message within the talk you set up - for those who 'get' the 
baseline faster.  So you can expand, but also restate, the baseline.

Always start with a hook!  Always finish with a summery!  Humour works to 
both break up info, and to wake up brain cells - try not to go more than 12 
minutes without a joke, visual funny or an anecdote that lighens up the 
mood.  If they are laughing, they are listening.

In terms of the message you are getting over, and that fact it's what could 
be termed a 'hostile' audience (either not prepared enough for new 
information that challenges assumptions, or listening to something they've 
already decided is not important or relevant) try to start with them.  And 
turn the 'argument' on its head - dispense with it, and go straight for the 
main crux of the matter: the baby and its needs.

So, for instance, I'd ask them to think for a moment on what a healthy 
newborn needs most in the first five minutes of life.  Then get them to turn 
to each other, and tell the person next to them their thoughts, and give 
them a few moments to discuss it.  Then ask for them to tell _you_ what has 
been said, and you write it down on a board.

Within five minutes, you'll have everything you need for an entire series of 
talks!

Once you've established what the needs are - oxygen, heat, fluids, etc... 
shift into a discussion of the needs of a newborn in the first few hours.  
And then start to discuss how the mother can provide all these needs, and 
how the staff can help the mother support the baby's needs  So you get to 
skin to skin, heat contact... and then human milk.  (I'd not use 
'breastmilk' - it sets it's self up in opposition to 'formula' the second it 
is used.  'Breastfeeding' is okay as a description of what the mother is 
doing, but if terms of what's going into the baby, I'd stick to 'human 
milk'.  "The baby needs... and that's what human milk is designed to do 
exactly"  With newborns, you can get round all this by always talking about 
colostrum! )

So for instance, you can say something like "Newborns need skin to skin to 
regulate not just heat, but blood sugar,, and placed on the mother's body 
directly after birth, it will not only snuggle into her, but many will start 
to lick colostrum" or somesuch statement.  Basically, you're matching the 
needs they have identified for you, with what the _mother_ provides, not the 
nursing staff.

When you've fully established the needs of the infant, and how the mother 
fulfills them by both sustained contact and feeding the baby milk, you can 
then move onto the statement about "if there are problems with not feeding 
the baby human milk - for instance, if the mother has chosen ahead of time 
not to feed the baby herself... and then discuss how those infant needs can 
be met with artificial feeding.    You can match the 'needs' you have 
established, with how you have to meet those needs differently if human 
milk/ the mother is lacking.  This imemdiately puts you into discussing 
'extra' work and 'extra caution'.

So, for instance, you've established that skin to skin is important for a 
newborn to regulate temperature - so you can state if the baby is being 
bottle fed, then the baby needs to have the same skin to skin - but careful 
control over the bottle must be applied in order to prevent 'flooding' the 
baby.  Once you've identified the 'natural' pathway, you're automatically 
discussing how to overcome problems that rise from not following the baby's 
basic needs.  Again, for instance, if you've established earlier that 
newborns only need a little fluid and sugars from colostrum, you can then 
talk about the 'problem' of making sure only a little is given from bottles 
at this time, as formula is not colostrum, and babies don't need much fluid 
at this time.

So... to recap  ;-)... you are presenting the needs of the baby, how mother 
and her milk fulfills these needs, and identifying extra caution points of 
the needs being met effectively if the mother has chosen not to give the 
baby her own milk.

There are loads of things you might want to say, but remember the first tip: 
less is more!

On the 'dangers' of formula, I've found that a counter-productive term.  
People immediately react to you saying a baby is in danger.  I've started to 
experiment with the word 'injury', and it's something less challenging, and 
more 'fixable'.  So, for instance, I can talk about how Crying It Out might 
injure a small baby, and how much hard work is then needed by to heal that 
injury.  So, to transfer it to the bottle feeding scenario... "Too much 
formula, too quickly can injure the newborn in a way difficult to see.  Its 
poor little stomach gets blown and bloated, and when it cries in pain, 
everyone says - newborn's cry.  How uncomfortable are you after a huge 
Christmas dinner?"  That sort of thing.

Finally, there are several cheap and easy ways to make the audience take 
part without dealing with that awesome silence as you ask for an opinion.  
The simplest method I've found, is a piece of paper on each seat, with "No" 
on one side and "Yes" on the other.  (or "I agree" and "I disagree"). Then, 
when you prep the audience, you ask questions, and they raise the paper..

"Do you think babies need their mothers?"  (Everyone will raise "Yes")

"Do you think mothers need their babies?"  (panic will ensue!)

I've been considering a 'traffic light' set on this - three pieces of paper 
- red, green and orange.  Green for yes, red for no, orange for "I'm not 
sure".  If you've already got them to turn and talk to each other, the most 
hesitant of audiences will use the paper comment ... one will go up, then 
another few, and if you wait, the whole room will follow.

As a hook... how about walking into the room with a crying baby sound 
playing, and place a doll covered in vaseline on a towel on the desk in 
front of you.  Ask the audience what you need to do for the crying baby who 
is ten seconds old?  :-)  When you come to summary, get the doll back out, 
and hold it against you, quiet and fulfilled: its needs met.  :-)

Sorry if this is a huge information dump.  ;-)  I've been thinking hard on 
this for quite some time.... Obviously, the examples I've given, aren't 
meant to reflect what topics you may choose to teach!  I guess what I'm 
saying (my own baseline) is that how you structure the information and the 
activites, will do more towards establishing the 'norm' than how you talk 
about the issues themselves.

But do let me recap once more!  (that means I've done it three times!)

Start with the baby's immediate needs and hand that over to the audience to 
feed back on.

Outline how a mother fulfills these needs, and how staff can help get them 
together effectively.

Discuss the challenges to the staff when dealing with a mother who chooses 
not to meet the baby's needs naturally.  This allows you to openly discuss 
problem with aritficial feeding methods in context of a professional's role 
in mother-baby support.

Summarise with the baby's needs being met - and how proud the staff can be 
in helping achieve that!

As I said, more than happy to go to email to help with your exact objectives 
and audience.

Oh dear.. gone off on one, haven't I?  Oops... I'll just go skulk in the 
corner....

Morgan Gallagher
Online Lactaneer
Garrulous Woman

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