> Because we all care so much, and because we want the very best for
> our moms
> and babies, it is easy to get upset with what we perceive may have
> happened
> with a mom and baby before we began to work with them.
> However, we were not there.  We did not see or hear what happened,
> we have
> only what the mother remembers or what she tells us to help us
> reconstruct
> what may have happened before. We did not see that baby in the first
> days
> after birth, when it may have been too sleepy to wake up and feed,
> or when
> it was able to root and latch but then was not able to suck.  Days
> later,we
> did not try to teach the mother when she was exhausted from her
> labor and
> birth, sore and overwhelmed with information and visitors.
> Since then, I have learned that what the mother relates may be what
> she
> thought was said, but may not be what actually took place.  If she
> is
> feeling overwhelmed, tired, depressed, etc., she may read things
> into what
> was said that really was not said.  When I hear something about
> another
> IBCLC, I work hard to try and understand what really happened, and
> to know
> that whatever it was, that IBCLC did the best she could at the time.
>  It is
> important to understand that some are very very busy, that some are
> feeling

 I am behind in my reading and I just want to say that I truely
appreciate your letter because I am a hospital based IBCLC and often
times when people call the office after discharge they don't even realize
I am the same person.  I am affiliated with the hospital and my phone
number is given to them on discharge.  How can they not even make the
connection?  Any way I just wanted to agree with you.  Most of what these
moms tell us after discharge is their perception of what was relayed to
them.  It happens very frequently.  When mothers are in a stressed mode;
new baby in the hospital having problems with feeding they only take in
about 10% of what we tell them.   So we have to realize that when we see
them postpartum to realize what they say may not be what really happened.
 We must also empathize with them and give them the right information,
but not be angry with the LC from the hospital .  I know that I have
heard stories about  what was said to patients the hospital by me from
other LCs that are not true and your story only reinforces that.   I too,
along with many hospital based LCs do the work of 4 LCs, but that is
another story.  Thank you for sharing your story.
Darlene Breed, BSN, RN, IBCLC
Coordinator, Milk Bank & Breastfeeding Center, Worcester, MA (USA)
Treasurer, Human Milk Bank Association of North America (HMBANA)
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