Magda wrote:


>Perhaps in societies where breastfeeding knowledge is lost and our
>understanding is occluded by centuries of ignorance and misunderstanding,
>some of these rules will help. but I worry intensely that they will become
>seen to be reality, rather than ways of salvaging breastfeeding from even
>worse rules of thumb which have been imposed on women and internalised by
>women so that they impose them on themselves.
>
>It may seem a luxury to worry about this stuff when you/I/we are at the
>coalface of helping a mother, but if we ignore this, we are never going to
>get anywhere.  In my opinion.


If by 'anywhere' you mean a place where bf  'belongs'  to women and babies
and communities, rather than professionals of whatever hue...then yes, I
think you are right.

In plugging the gap left when bf support and information, and acceptance
disappears as society becomes more 'civilised'  there is a risk that any
form of numbers and measuring actually reduces the chances of support and
information and acceptance appearing. The professionals decide on the
numbers and 'approve' of bf which matches them.

This is more than a dilemma, it's a conflict. No one wants babies to
starve, or for bf to fail because mothers no longer have that community
support and 'growed-up-with' knowledge about bf. That's partly why the
rules can seem important - as in individual cases they surely are.

Also, a mother and her baby may be discharged into a world which has
forgotten about bf, into a family who have not a clue about it, into a
culture where babies are meant to sleep all night and not demand too much,
and where there may be no healthcare contact at all for weeks (fortunately,
not the case here - *all* mothers see midwives and health visitors
routinely, who may not always know much about bf, but who can usually
recognise dehydration and FTT, even if they do it a bit late to make saving
the bf an easy task) .

Giving a mother some basic idea of numbers in this situation may be
sensible (I am not saying which numbers or what they are - though one would
hope they are accurate)....but there is a price to pay for it.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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