Betsy makes an interesting point about patient responsibility and
accountability. I will whole heartedly embrace the concept when the day comes that
mothers can 'expect' normal and only have to be informed and have a plan for
interventions they choose to have or truly must have. The idea that the patient
must do all the research, present the data, and then beg on bended knee for
the right to dare to have a normal experience is the reality, and until that
reality changes, I do not see it as patient responsibility, but as the
medical establishments responsibility to remember to first do no harm.
A mother should not have to ask to not have her baby taken away, a mother
should not have to ask to be allowed to breastfeed. I find it deplorable that
a mother must have a written plan and request her baby not be supplemented
with artificial feeding. It should be assumed breastfeeding is the norm, as it
is, and then the mother who wants to do otherwise must be prepared to ask
for the alternatives. The problem with the entire system of maternity care in
the USA is no one has a clue what normal even looks like and when a mother
dares to ask for it she is ridiculed in the halls. I honestly feel that the
mother who dares to educate, to come in with her birth plan, who asks for what
she wants is punished and the underlying maybe unconscious goal is to prove
she 'needs' everything she is trying to avoid. Of course, I realize this is
not the case in every area, but I assure you it is very much the case in my
area and I have heard it discussed more than once and in more than one hospital.
Until the data we use for studies uses the biological norms as their
control, there is no way to say that interventions make no difference. In fact,
after reading Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding, I am more sure that
much of what I work to help correct is often about the birth in some ways
more than others.
Best,
Pam MazzellaDiBosco, IBCLC, RLC who sees the hospital practices as a doula
Birthing & Beyond, Inc.
In a message dated 2/13/2006 2:50:50 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
I would like to add that it is also=20=
each individual's responsibility to make sure they are adequately informe=
d=20
and not expect the medical profession to tell do all their work for them.=
=20
That is called accountability and it goes both ways.
Betsy Riedel RNC, IBCLC
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