I was going to email Loni privately about the physician issue. But decided it really deserves Group discussion. I don't know about everyone out there but I think that if the docs took time on the Breastfeeding issue to do their homework and get caught up as a practitioner who supports women/babies - we could make so much progress in the Lactation field. If they cannot do this - they should welcome LCs with open arms to be their resource. If the practice you have is researched based, if what you are teaching is outlined and understood by all the docs with hospital priveledges who care for moms/babes, if you give them opportunity to get to know you and you get to know them too - where they are coming from - this is important. If you have a bad rep. then you almost need to back off a little and rework. That happened to me. Nothing I was doing was wrong but when I first became an LC docs weren't quite ready to hear me recommend. They resisted me. I backed off from them but did not stop treating patients carefully. I supported, followed up, gave information pertinent to each mom and baby, taught staff RNS, taught Perinatal Educators, Got a name in the community, started slowly getting referrals for re-admits, sent them reports (they liked this) And guess what? We are now applying for Baby Friendly. We have grown alot. It won't be easy though. We are only at the certificate of intent phase. We have some pretty stubborn, controlling docs. I will never stop being who I am, however, I realized that they were not ready for my passion etc... I would love to hear what others are doing with this. There is a whole dimension to this in the culture of change, the politics of institutions etc... Sue Majoris - home from Sunday soccer - one more weekend to go and we move to indoor soccer! *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html