Dear Laurie,
I know how you're feeling. Here's a little response to the manager who
is letting these guilt-free moms off the hook.
How about having the moms sign a release so they can't come back to your
hospital years from now and say no one told me these things can happen
to my child if I don't BF. List the inflamation diseases on the release.
Could save the hospitals millions of dollars in litigation years from
now (like the tobacco companies.) No one told thetobacco consumers that
the drug nicotine was habit forming and caused all those problems
(cancer.) How would the hospitals like to be presented with whopping
legal losses in the future. That would do damage to the bottom line. If
they are afraid to tell the mom about these potential health problems for
fear of making a mom feel a little guilty now who's going to pay up when
when one of these mom's learns she may have prevented asthma in her child
before the age of 6 had she only exclusively BF for 4 months(1)?
(1)(W. Oddy)
Regards,
P.Harris-Swenson, MA, IBCLC, Doula in training
WIC Nutritionist & BF Coordinator
Still behind '69 spring cleaning & Lactnet mail!
Lowell, MA USA
Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2000 22:21:26 GMT
From: laurie wheeler <>
Subject: i give up/burnout
Cindy and Loni,
I recently visited, with my 2 mgrs, another hospital program to get ideas
about our own, really the rental/retail business my mgrs are looking
into.
Here is one thing the LC there stated that at first goes against my grain
but somehow she really makes a good point:
Moms [parents] are responsible for their learning prenatally and
postnatally
re bf. They should seek out learning opportunities and make the
committment
to bf. The LC cannot make her learn or be committed. Also most moms do
not
absorb much if anything in the early postpartum. So her philosophy as I
understood it is to ask "how is bf going" and if the mom says fine, even
if
there are bottles all over the room, she leaves her card and the hosp bf
booklet saying here are some tips that will help you with bf or make bf
easier and lets it go. I asked what if there are bottles when you come in
or
the baby was in nsy last nite when you get report, and she replied what
does
that say about the moms' committment to bf? She does not assume, as I
would,
that the mom just didn't have the info, rather she should have it and
decided not to act on it. If the mom wants baby to feed in the nsy she
says
usually the nite nurse will say you know it's best to go ahead and breast
feed but that is as far as it goes. My mgr likes this approach as several
pts did not like when the LC gave info on problems that can occur with
supplements.
What do you all think? It will certainly free me up a bit to help the
moms
who really ask for help and on the consults who want to come in.
Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC
Violet Louisiana, s.e. USA
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