I am most interested in the discussion recently regarding  self
attachment, position of baby's head and  interfering with  the positoning
of the head by health professional staff who  inadvertantly  push  babies
heads into the breast and  breastfeeding problems eventuate instaed of
being prevented.

The question is how to  change the practice of head pushing??? Will it
change just by people knowing?? How long willl it take to inform and
conviince people who head push that what they do is actually counteracting
what the baby needs to do and  mostl ikely will result in  preventable
breastfeeding problems.

Have you noticed that popular midwifery text books show diagrams of  the
midwife 'helping' by  holding the back of the baby's head? While it may be
that midwives and other health professionals are taught and shown  helping
strategies other than  what is in a few commonly used textbooks, one would
firstly hope midwives do use the textbooks and secondly  that  it may be
time for text book diagrams to  more optimally represent best practice
when it comes to portraying latch and health professioanl support and
assistance. Further more have you noticed that  baby head holidng  has
often diagramaticly portrayed in magazines and pictures of
newborn babies. while it is true that a baby does need the head supported
I see the way this is portrayed  pictorially  gives the impression holding
the head will support it when in fact it is the neck and shoulders that
need to be supported so the head will be supported. In fact if the baby is
held by the head in the way we often see portrayed in photos, I understand
damage may occrr to the the neck (according to physiotherapist
annecdotally).

Are there any new edition midwifery or newborn  nursing text books that
show this correctly? Are there any recent most up dated midwifery or
newborn  nursing text books that  explain  and diagramaticlly portray and
integrate with other midwifery concepts the value of skin-to-skin contact
for  optimal attachment  in breastfeeding innitation???

Thank you all for  your comments.
Ruth

Ruth Cantrill
Griffith University
Nathan QLD


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