I'd just like to add another perspective to this discussion.  Having seen a
fair share of infants who fought going to the breast, I think that there is
alot of gymnastics going on to get an infant to the breast--not just chin
pressure.  Is it chin pressure alone or all the other hands in babies face?

Years ago, in a discussion with a midwife about birth (prior to my having any
babies), she made a statement that effected me greatly.  She mentioned that a
docotor does not delivery a baby, the mom delivers the baby.  Likewise, I
feel our profession needs to think and rethink its thoughts on "latching" a
baby to the breast.  This is mother work not doctor work or LC work.
Certainly there will always be women and babies who need "assistance" with
getting breastfeeding started.  I think of it in terms of someone learning to
swim.  You do not do the strokes for the first time swimmer.  You are there
to hold them up, to help them overcome their fear.  You don't force their
heads underwater to teach the the pleasures of going underwater.  You give
them the opportunity to get used to the environment, you let them see others
doing it and enjoying it, and then you give them the opportunity to try it.
You let them do it the way in which they feel comfortable and you find ways
to make it easier for them.  But not everyone swims in the same way, likewise
not everyone is going to breastfeed in the same "correct" position.  There
are some Olympic gold-medal swimmers who coaches say that their form is
terrible...there stroke is incorrect.  Yet shockingly they become winners
despite their terrible form.

I think what has happened in this profession is that somehow our job
description has become putting babies to the breast. Mothers and
administrators of programs seem to think that's what we do.  But how enabling
to mothers is having someone else put the baby to the breast.  How often I
have heard from mothers that someone in the hospital put the baby to the
breast but she can't do it.   Just like mothers who can't deliver babies,
their doctors do it for them.  (And yes sometimes assistance is necessary).
But overall, who breastfeeds?  Who must do the work?
Valerie W. McClain, IBCLC

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