Out of lurkdom here and asking for wisdom.
I am the IBCLC in a small hospital. Most of the OB
nurses and nsg assistants (we call them OB
technicians, or OBTs)in our unit are supportive of
breastfeeding. Some are neutral, and one is almost
hostile. She subtly undermines a new mother's
confidence by frequently making comments such as "Well
she's probably crying because she is starving, or
Don't you want the daddy to be able to feed her once
in a while, or You're going to use bottles at home,
aren't you? or (the most difficult to deal with) The
Hispanic mothers always give a bottle until their milk
comes in-it won't hurt anything." (a whole'nother
issue)
Last night in the nursery, a mother, whom I had helped
earlier in the day and who was bfing well, became
concerned that her baby was hungry because of an
apparently inconsolable crying spell, and insisted
that he receive some formula. The nursery nurse
counseled the mom appropriately, but did compromise
and fingerfeed the baby 15cc of formula. This was not
the real problem. At the next feeding, the mom nursed
the baby for about 20 mins or so on each breast after
which she settled, but only briefly. "Helpful OBT"
comes to get the baby(our moms have the option of
rooming in 24hrs) and record the feeding. Comes back
to the nursery and informs the RN that she is now
going to feed the baby a bottle, at mom's request,
"because she doesn't want to use that
fingerfeeder-thing and the mom said it was ok to use a
bottle, she's going to use one at home anyway."
This OBT is a grandmother, has her own opinions, and
I don't know how much "education" will help. The 3
RNs working with her are all young enough to be her
daughters, so patients tend to pay more attention to
her "advice" than theirs and they have asked me for
help in handling this situation.
I apologize for the length of this post.
Thanks in advance,
Diane Tate, RNC,BSN,IBCLC
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