Mary wrote about the many ways in which doulas help breastfeeding and I
completely agree.  My doula was terrific in that regard and helped in many
ways, including giving me a good reference for a lactation consultant that
got me into doing this myself.  So, I definitely consider doulas to be
front-line workers along with baby nurses in terms of helping the
breastfeeding. Even though I typically find doulas to be more knowledgeable
about breastfeeding than doulas, I have seen some marvelous baby nursers as
well. I still am amazed at the baby nurse that worked with a mom to hand
express every three hours for a baby for 2 weeks straight that wasn't
latching. Let me make it clear that it was the mom reporting about that
particular incident of being told to not to feed her baby that got my
goat.

When frustrated, it is often a good idea to vent in a safe place, wait a
while and then reconsider.  So, I vented here and thought about what to do
and listened to suggestions.  I liked the suggestion to think about some
sort of brochure or pamphlet for doulas exactly because they see it all
first and can triage lots of breastfeeding problems.

Guess what, this was another reminder in the fallability of second hand
reporting. After I expressly probed the mother about "perhaps the doula
meant that you should wake your baby up every three hours, since you
mentioned your baby was sleepy", the mother clearly told me that she was
told to swaddle her baby and not feed her baby when the baby was crying.
About as direct as you can get.  The next day, my colleague saw the mother
and she recanted everything.  Haven't we all repeated things three or four
times, only to follow up and find that nothing sunk in or that a mother has
completely misunderstood something you have said?

Basically, I was in shock that a doula would have suggested holding a baby
off because I have never encountered one that recommends keep a baby from
feeding until the three hour mark.  And am happy to say, I still have not
yet encountered a doula who has done so.

Glad, I took it out on Dear Annie and got it out of my system.

Best, Susan Burger

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