For many years I've told moms "If you are worried enough to call me in the
middle of the night, then I'll talk to you right then. However, please save
non-emergency calls for the daylight hours."  I've rarely been called in the
middle of the night for non-urgent situations in 30 years of doing this work
first as a volunteer and now as an LC in private practice.

That being said, I'm convinced that most "panic" calls from moms are the end
result of health care "systems" that provide inadequate, unskilled, and/or
fragmented care of the mother-baby dyad. This is a preventable problem, if
"we" had the political will to solve it. It boggles the mind that "we" can
build smoothly functioning systems to deliver packages across the country in
less than 24 hours, but can't manage to get a skilled provider to a new mom
& baby in less than 2 weeks!  Something's WRONG with this picture!

(I'm feeling very impatient with "system" problems today - can you tell?! )

You all on Lactnet are WONDERFUL - keep up the good work with moms & babies!
We're way ahead of where we were 5 years ago, and MUCH better than 10 years
ago, and a quantum leap ahead of 30 years ago when my first child was born.

Linda J. Smith, BSE, FACCE, IBCLC
Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre www.bflrc.com
6540 Cedarview Ct., Dayton, OH 45459-1214 USA
(937) 438-9458 email [log in to unmask]

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