AAACK! I am completely frustrated - needing to vent a bit here, more than
looking for a fast & dirty answer (although if any of you have such a
solution, please speak up!).

Just had a call from yet another mother (this one very young, unable to
afford the services of a LC or even the rental of a good heavy-duty pump)
whose baby won't latch on & nurse. She had an intrathecal with nubaine for
delivery 3 days ago, and the baby won't latch, won't try to suck at the
breast. Since I didn't see her (her midwife called me from her house), I
don't have the full scoop here, but this connection between
intrathecals/epidurals and non-nursing babies seems to me to be as plain as
the nose on my face! Almost *all* the clients I've worked with since I've
been in private practice have presented with this same set-up.

So frustrating!!! And if I'm frustrated by this situation, what about all
the poor moms trying to cope? And all the poor little babies that don't have
a clue what to do, many of whom won't get breastfed despite their mothers'
best intentions because of the major grind involved in pumping & working
with these kids till they are able to get organized enough to suck properly!

And, on a purely selfish note, this is the problem I dread the most; there
really is so little that I can do to get these kids to suck. Mostly I'm left
being sure the mom is using a good pump and a good pumping "regimen", and
telling her over and over again about skin-to-skin contact and remaining
patient till the baby "gets it", and being sure she's doing all the right
stuff (and continuing to feed the baby, of course - let's not forget that!),
and providing moral support till I'm blue in the face. But it makes me feel
incompetent! Seems to me to come down to a face off - me against a puny
little 6-pounder - which is not my usual way of viewing babies. I refuse to
let myself get locked into thinking of this as a power struggle with a
newborn infant - yet this is how it feels! It's the kid who has to do the
sucking, after all - I'm not a magician!

OK, I'll try not to go on & on. Do others of you feel this way sometimes?
Have any of you taken up this matter with the childbirth professionals in
your area - OBs, anesthesiologists (the biggies!), childbirth educators, OB
nurses? I guess I'll have to steel myself up to bring this matter to the
anesthesiologists, for starters; I want to do it in a collegial way, because
I know they want the best for their patients and I'm sure they haven't got a
clue that this is going on with these babies. Since they have no contact
with the mothers after discharge, I wouldn't expect them to know what we're
seeing.

Thanks for "listening"!
Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY

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