Wendy, this made me smile:

>
>Occasionally I meet a well-qualified counsellor and after talking to 
>her I ask myself: if I was a young mother confused, exhausted and 
>ambivalent, is she not too agressive, too judgmental, too convinced 
>of the "facts" of breastfeeding to empathise with me at this point?


In non-counselling life, many of us can be very different 
people....my work as a breastfeeding counsellor has spilled out into 
other areas of my life and relationships, that's for sure, and while 
I am not judgemental, agressive or unable to empathise with people, I 
know I am different when I speak with mothers. Or, as one of my 
children put it to me many years ago, 'mummy, why are you so nice to 
those ladies on the phone, and so horrible to us?'....of course I was 
never really horrible to my children, or not often,  anyway, or only 
when  they deserved it [JOKE!!!]

>
>So let us not be snobby about peer support or help given by health 
>visitors or hospital nurses who have "only" done a short in-service 
>course.

I agree. With  short courses, the main thing is for people to know 
their boundaries....they can listen, they can encourage, they can 
support, and they can know when to refer on. Knowing what you *don't* 
know is crucial.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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