This is a resubmission that may have been garbled.

While reading Alicia's bit, it made me think of how true and
how important it is as LC's to plant seeds while not alienating
the mom who chooses not to bf or who decides to wean
prematurely.  A few weeks ago, I came across an 18 year old
single mom at the Health Unit's  Well Baby Clinic.  She has a 2
year old whom she breastfeed for a 2 week period after which
she decided to hand express for 1 week, then weaned because she
found expressing, going to school, and resuming her social life
too demanding. I remember telling her at that time of the
benefits of breastfeeding to both her and her infant while
mentioning the fact that she should be proud that she had
breastfed this child for this period ( at the same time that I
was telling her this, I felt rather sad ).  Shortly after
weaning, this child became very fussy and was spitting often
after her abm feedings.  She had recurrent otitis medias.  This
child was pale, grey looking but did follow an acceptable
growth curve.  Meanwhile the maternal grandmother continued to
breastfeed her baby for 9 months (the babies were born 2 months
apart.  Both moms had attended the same prenatal classes.  The
grandmother had breastfeed while supplementing this older
daughter with abm for 2 weeks.  She did the same with a younger
sibling. The grandmother's breastfeeding goal was to breastfeed
for a 4 month period as recommended by the WHO code at that
time.  The grandmother's baby was alert, pink, elastic,
contented and was never sick.  The grandmother would phone to
ask information from time to time.  You should have seen the
look of personal accomplishment when she finally stopped at the
Health Unit one day to show off her infant and to tell us that
she had bf twice as long as originally planned).  Back to my 18
year old.  This time her concern was " how to continue to
breastfeed her 4 month old while going to school versus how to
wean and go to school".  She remarked on how healthy and how
happy this infant is in comparison to her older sibling.  She
strongly feels that the baby's contentment and health is due to
breastmilk.

As Alicia says, " moms may feel differently with their next
baby".  How true!!   It teaches me patience and it reassures
that I am doing the right thing.  I realize that I may never
reap the seeds that I have sown but it does not stop me from
fertilizing and watering these precious seeds from time to
time.

Rosemarie Allain  RN, BScN, IBCLC
St Paul, Alberta, Canada