I've had a busy few days (that's an understatement!  I barely drug my poor tired body out of bed this morning, then ended up prone across the blankets for a precious few more minutes, which I rarely do!  TGIF!!!)  so I am a few days behind reading LN's.  I wanted to make a few comments about the
brochure listing the "advantages" of bottlefeeding that came to mind as I read some of the posts.

Kathleen said,
<<Whomever wrote that should be ready for a law suit, as the information contained therein is erroneous, and negligent. It does not mention the grave repercussions for mothers and babies who do not breastfeed. If I were a new mom and read that, I would believe that bottlefeeding was groovy and fine,
and if I then ended up with a baby with diabetes for example, or something else, I'd want to consult a good attorney.>>

I have been known to say that if I was wanting to breastfeed and someone at the hospital gave my baby a bottle or pacifier and we ended up weaning, then the baby had health problems, I would be the one to sue, in light of the research.  It occurs to me that those of us who might take this action,
which would make health care workers think twice about what they do, were too determined to breastfeed to let this scenario happen in the first place.  (Actually my 24 year old dd DID get formula in the hospital for 2 days, under bililights while I was sent home (no rooming in then ;-( ).  Noone
told me to pump.  Besides, we didn't have very good pumps then.  I remember having a 'bicycle horn' pump! They wouldn't have given her my milk anyway!  The doc told me it was my milk that caused the jaundice!  Actually she said it was something IN my milk, because we had an Rh incompatibility that
caused it.  At 6 weeks when this doc kept telling me to start cereals, I felt so uncomfortable lying to her saying that I did, that I found another pedi!  Anyway, it took 5 days, as I recall, to wean her off the bottle, and completely to breast.  Thank you LLL!  Back then, a lawsuit would have been
laughed at.  Today, with all we know, it's a different story.

Heather said,
<< If we needed to know how much milk the baby is getting, we'd have evolved with calibrated breasts...with an instant fat-o-meter gadgetty-thing attached to each side,  so we could do a calorie count of what came out ('cos, as these folk clearly don't know, size (or volume) isn't everything).>>
to which I would add, and what good would that knowledge be?  How do we know precisely how much each individual baby "should" get?  It seems to me, with the obesity that is rampant here in the U.S., having that knowledge isn't much use.  We have way too many 'fat' children, probably most of whom
were formula-fed, so that their mothers knew how much their child was getting.  Wasn't necessarily a good thing for the child's health.  We all know it's easy to overfeed a baby with a bottle.  Just force it down their throats.  It isn't that easy to do with a breastfed baby.  After all, how DO you
make a full baby continue to nurse???  How often have you seen a nursing baby comfort sucking, break off when the milk let down again because they weren't expecting -or wanting- quantity?
Marsha, who is sooooo glad it's Friday!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Marsha Glass RN, BSN, IBCLC
Mothers have as powerful an influence over the welfare of future generations as all other earthly causes combined.
John S. C. Abbot
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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