Sadly, Nikki, the hospital corporation here has opened a doula service that  
includes breastfeeding 'help'.  They are the very ones who had an oversized  
novelty baby bottle on their display table at Cathy Genna's excellent recent  
talk in NJ.  I went to their table three times to politely ask them to put  the 
bottle away.  They looked at me blankly when I asked them if they  didn't 
think it inappropriate, odd, at the very least, ironic, and to me,  offensive, to 
have a bottle (to advertise their business) on display at  a----BREASTFEEDING 
conference?????? I mentioned the declaration we sign,  the code we adhere 
to---just clueless.  AARGH!  One of them came to me  as the conference was ending 
and said she had spoken to some people, giggle  giggle, and now she 
understood.  This was discussed among all the people  sitting around me and yet they 
were very blase and accepting of it as no big  deal.  They were 'proud' of me 
when I was persistent.  Yes, these are  the new doulas the hospital will be 
'pushing' (offering) to patients who are  their captive audience. So again, the 
living room womanly sharing of education  and attendant passion for the norm is 
missing in the money making  paradigm.  Surely there are some hospital classes 
that are unique but they  are rare, IMO.  
I am a Sixties woman and I am sad that my 35 year old daughter, mother of  
two born normally, breastfed and breastfeeding to baby-led weaning, is fighting  
the same battles I fought.  And she and her similar thinking peers are  
called martyrs and slaves to their babies, etc.  They talk about their fear  of 
DYFS and remain underground in their discussions of unmedicated births,  
co-sleeping and breastfeeding because they are sick of the ridicule--this my  daughter 
of many talents, with Drew U, Columbia and Harvard University  credentials.  
I rail at the system where these mothers are imtimidated in  hospitals by 
judgemental ignoramuses, or shunned, left without even the  slightest care because 
'..if they want it that way they can just do it all  themselves'.  Raging, 
weeping, frustration and wonderment at why women are  not up at arms about the 
ravaging of the birthing process, I am going to  read Pushed soon.  My daughter 
told me about it and it is a Q and A by the  authors with all maternity staff 
at a local hospital about their tactics.   I'm certainly not pushing a book 
but I am interested in how the author  approached the issues in her questions 
and amazed that the staff was willing to  answer!
 
I will also weigh in on the teaching of bottlefeeding methods and  equipment. 
 I wonder who of us can remember the list of "most like mother"  bottle teats 
marketed since 1973, when I started as a breastfeeding support  person.  For 
a long time (and still sometimes), when I was asked about  which I thought was 
best, I told patients that this was the domain of their  pediatric team.  
Type of formula and bottle feeding styles were not in the  position description 
of an LC or LLLeader.  The PNP in most pediatric  offices knew this area inside 
and out.  Sometimes I would tell people that  this was not my area of 
expertise, and again send them back to their  pediatrician, hoping they would realize 
that this was a medical decision rather  than a shopping choice.  I saw a lot 
of normal then.  As my practice  and the field evolved, I began to see mostly 
the most difficult of cases.   So discouraging at times.  Pumps, alternate 
feeding devices, marketing and  selling in major chains have also shifted how 
many LC's think of their role in  infant feeding.  It is with the difficult 
cases that I think I began to  give more instruction on how to feed a baby with 
alternate methods from the  norm, most often with the hope that this would keep 
options to breastfeed open  and support the baby in eing properly nourished.  
I was, am, the end of the  road for a lot of people interested in br
eastfeeding and facing great  obstacles.  So for easy bottle feeding questions I send 
them to their peds  or to Google or one of the many websites so that they can 
print out material or  see what appeals to them personally.  For ALL situations, 
I stress using  whatever works best for their baby and define what 'works 
best for baby'  means.  For the difficult situations where I am listing options 
of feeding  methods, I have related the breastfeeding problem to the bottle 
teat type as an  explanation of why I think that might work.  
I am happy to remind parents that they are being heavily studied by the  
marketers for all of the baby junk sold out there and that they have to do their  
research and use what works at their house.  Eyes pop open then.  
I can't imagine why anyone would expect to come to a class on breastfeeding  
and expect information on bottle feeding.  I would strenuously object to  
teaching a segment on bottlefeeding in a childbirth ed class.  I agree with  the 
person who asked why we would then not be expected to teach about APNEA  
monitors and all the other things mentioned.  There should be separate  
breastfeeding and bottle feeding classes.  Some mothers might attend  both.  I would hope 
that there would be no conflict of interest issues as I  so often see, or 
pressure on the mother to make the choice we want for  ourselves.  That's none of 
our business and only perpetuates the whole  women bashing women heartbreak.  
Oh, how our lines can become blurred.  Off my post-Thanksgiving soap  box 
now.  We had a lovely day starting at 5 AM trekking into NYC with  children and 
grandchildren to watch the amazing Macy's Thanksgiving  Day parade from my 
son-in-laws office window.  Catered, bathrooms,  comfy chairs and perfect weather. 
 It could never again be that  perfect.  When we finished eating back at the 
kids house at 5 PM, we  thought it was more like midnight but it was a day of 
celebration of the  goodness of human beings, including the people in the 
dense human gridlock who  made way for my daughter with my year old granddaughter 
asleep in the baby  carrier (never take a stroller into a crowd). The happy 
roar of the crowd gave  me goose bumps--so much collective joy over larger than 
life sights and  sounds.  
Regards,
Jeanne Rago
Lactation Consultants, Inc.
Morristown, NJ



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