Morning all,
This post is finally provoked in response to Kathleen's post about the twin
mom and the difficulty she is having in building up her milk supply to meet
the needs of two babies. Kathleen wrote, ". It's a balance between sleep,
enjoying her babies, and trying to build supply. She doesn't have a lot
left to do more...." But it's really only an extension of recent posts
outlining some of the frustrations of LC practice, culminating in the wise
response that we probably need to take with a small pinch of salt some of
the things that mothers tell us about the advice they have previously
received from other LCs, nurses, doctors, etc. So I'm connecting a few
dots this morning to find a common theme.
It struck me that the central frustration of lactation consulting that we
struggle with day after day (whether we're helping a mom with sore nipples
or not enough milk or returning to work or whatever), is the priority which
the mother places on her baby's need for her milk. And from there, the
effort she needs to make to work around the difficulties to keep
breastfeeding. When a baby's need for breastmilk is presented as being in
competition with a mother's need for sleep, or a mother's need for freedom
from pain, or any other reason, but especially when it is portrayed as a
competing need for her enjoyment of the baby (ie if she breastfeeds less,
or not at all, she will be able to enjoy her baby more) I wonder how we, as
LCs, can possibly "support" the mother *and*, at the same time, protect the
baby?
What frustrates me is the obligation we seem to have to endorse ("accept")
that somehow the *other* priority should always be placed first. I'm not
saying that mothers with sore nipples should be forced to breastfeed. But
it is almost always possible for the baby to keep receiving breastmilk even
if a) there is a physical reason why the baby cannot breastfeed, or b) the
mother cannot put the baby to the breast, for whatever reason (physical or
mental pain, separation, inverted nipples etc). There are breast pumps,
and when they fail there is hand-expression. With the exception of mothers
who deliver but simply don't lactate (1 in 1000 in my experience) there is
*always* a way for the baby to receive the breastmilk - preferably at
breast, but when that is not possible, a way can be found!
What I'm wondering is how we, as LCs, help mothers to set priorities. Do
we "meet the mother where she's at", sympathise with her lack of sleep/time
for herself/her husband/you name it, and "support" her to go on feeding her
babies formula because providing them with breastmilk seems too hard? Or
do we focus on the baby's vulnerability and real need for her milk and
outline clearly whatever effort she needs to make to provide it? I'd
really like to know how others handle this. I think this is at the core of
LC practice. And I think it creates a conflict of interest for us, as
LCs. When we are too afraid of alienating the mother (or our colleagues)
to be able to speak for the baby, then we cannot be very effective. This is
not a criticism, I've recently "supported" a mother in just this way - my
only consolation being that the baby has probably had a few weeks more
breastfeeding than he would have had, I have *not* alienated the mother and
she's already talking about trying "harder" when she has her next baby, but
I am left feeling that *this* baby has been failed, by his mother, by me,
and by society at large. This is a clear situation of competing
needs. The breast/bottle controversy is alive and well. For so long as
breastmilk is not really valued in our society, then our profession
(helping more mothers get more of their milk into more of their babies)
will continue to be unacknowledged and under-valued too. If the #1 health
priority was to help each mother breastfeed each baby, then it *would*
happen. Thoughts, anyone??
Pamela Morrison IBCLC
Rustington, UK
[log in to unmask]
***********************************************
To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|