Renee:  Stop beating yourself up!  This is this mom's decision and it's her 
baby!  She is a responsible adult capable of making decisions for herself 
and her baby!  Your ONLY responsibility is to give her the information she 
needs to make an "informed" decision that she feels will work for her 
situation.  This is why nurses burn out so often and so completely!  We 
want to save the world from itself - guess what, never going to happen!
I have handled similar situations (how did you get so lucky to get this far 
with this situation never having occurred?)by asking the mom if she would 
consider pumping while her baby is in the hospital.  Sometimes I get lucky 
and the mom agrees to this and sometimes I get extremely lucky and mom not 
only pumps, but puts baby to breast when baby is ready for nursing, and 
luck is really with me when said mom goes home happily nursing.
If you take the approach that her EBM is medicine, some moms will buy into 
this and at least baby gets mom's milk at the beginning which is so 
important.
Sounds like you have taken care of your responsibility, which was to give 
mom education/information.  If she is still choosing not to breastfeed, 
then you can move onto the next mom, secure in the knowledge that you did 
all you could for this particular mom.
Stay strong!

Pam Hirsch, RN,BSN,CLC
Clinical Lead, Lactation Services
Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital
Barrington, IL   USA 

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