HELP!  I'm getting depressed.  In the last few days I have heard over and over,
both at the hospital where I work and in my private practice, "I had to give
the baby a bottle of formula after I breastfed - He/she was STARVING!  Where
are these mothers getting this idea from.  And more to the point, why do they
insist that this is the case, *even after* we have talked and I have reassured
them that putting baby to breast often will keep the baby full and the breast
milk at the level the baby needs?

Some days I feel as though I am fighting a losing battle.  My new job at the
hospital is going well, but I am noticing that *almost* every baby's bed has a
bottle of abm tucked into the corner.  That includes the ones who say they are
breastfeeding.  The hospital has been without a LC for a few months and while I
KNOW that the previous 2 LCs were really working on not having breastfed babies
offered formula - things seemed to have slipped.  I guess I'll have to start
over again and do some education and that means staff as well as moms.

What I want to say is, "where will it end".  What I guess I have to say is,
"where shall I begin?"  All suggestions are welcome.

Yaffa


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        Yaffa Stark, MA, IBCLC    Los Angeles, Calif., USA
        "We must identify and reduce barriers which keep women
       from beginning or continuing to breastfeed their infants."
       C. Everett Koop, M.D., ScD. Former Surgeon General
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