From today's Daily Telegraph (UK)
Please read the WHOLE article!
This problem is not limited to the UK. Just the other day I saw a
mother with her non-latching newborn. When I went over the basics of
positioning with her, she said she had never heard any of this kind of
information before, even though she was a *Lactation Counselor,* 
working full time helping mothers to breastfeed at our local WIC
agency.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=P8&targetRule=10&xml=/health/2005/05/05/hbreast05.xml

Some quotes from the article follow. I do not understand why this lady
PAID for LLL help - maybe the reporter misunderstood?

> Brookfield had already sought help: "In hospital, the breastfeeding counsellor showed me how to do it, but it felt as if you needed three arms. It was absurd."
Later, at home, after showing the community midwife up to her lovingly
prepared breastfeeding room, she was told: "It's not working because
you're too tense and your baby is lazy."
After weeks of agony, Brookfield paid for a counsellor from the
breastfeeding charity La Leche League and the problem was solved.
Clare Byam-Cook hears such stories with wearying regularity. The
retired midwife runs a home-visit service and is convinced that many
midwives simply don't know how to latch a baby on to the breast.
She positively bristles at my suggestion of more support for new
mothers. "I hate that word," she says. "Mothers don't need support,
they need to be told how to do it. You wouldn't get a plumber to
half-fix a boiler then ring you every day with nice, encouraging
words. You want it fixed.
"All mothers used to stay in hospital for at least five days. Now they
boot the women out after a day and tell them that the baby will get
the hang of it when they get home. What on earth makes them think
that?" She believes it is "150 per cent irresponsible" of the
Government to push breastfeeding so hard when no one is teaching
mothers how to do it.
"These women feel angry when they go back to the hospital for an
appointment and see 'breast is best' posters in the waiting room and
pictures of happy women breastfeeding. They feel let down and
guilty."<
CLIP
>Heather Welford, an NCT breastfeeding counsellor and tutor, agrees
that there is a big gap between the positive messages sent out to
women, and the reality if they run into problems. There are 600,000
babies born each year and we have 100 breastfeeding counsellors in the
country - how can we keep up?" she asks. <

Norma Ritter
[log in to unmask]

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html