Thank you, Linda Rosetti for your words of encouragement. I have begun to
see earlier follow-up, partiuclarly among nurses who know how closely I
follow myu clients and some hospital-based LCs. I find that by calling them
immediately after I see the mother the first visit, and then after the next
one, when baby has usually gained a lb and no longer looks like a survivor
of a concentration camp or worse, they feel good about having made an early
direct referral and are more inclined to do so again. If only the MDs would
do the same.

One of my clients played "dumb" and was told by her pediatrician that "some
LCs are real fanatics. You can usally get through nursing by muddling
through on your own.  It's pretty instinctive, you know."  Both parents had
been to my prenatal breastfeeding class (3-class series); what I found most
instructive was the mother's reaction to the MDs comments. She said, "If I
hadn't already known what to do, I would have felt like a failure, because
I really didn't yet feel confident about muddling through on my own."  The
good part of that story is when they persisted and asked for someone's
name, the MD suggested she call me. (I guess this means all is not lost,
just that they seem to think that overt advocacy for breastfeeding will
make mothers feel guilty, a notion I do not subscribe to.  Funny that we
worry so much about that if a mother chooses to bottle-feed, but no one
seems to worry that a breastfeeding mother might feel "left out" for not
doing what our society seems to portray as the normal method of feeding a
baby. Nor do we worry that a breastfeeding mother might feel guilty for not
choosing to bottle-feed OR, come to think of it, that a bottle-feeding
mother might regret not having breastfed... Something to think about, the
one-way thinkintg about breastfeeding.  Do you suppose such persons are
really protecting their own sense of inadequacy if they know less than they
feel comfortable knowing when people might ask them questions?  Just a
thought.

Thank goodness for all those other MDs I've had contact with. Some have
even thanked me for sending moms in early or referring mothers seeking a
supportive physician.

There are times I wish I worked out of such an office--when my phone never
stops ringing. Then I think of the reasons I prefer to run my own office,
and the wish fulfillment passes....  :-)



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         %% lactation consulting service.             %%
         %% Kathleen G. Auerbach, PhD, IBCLC          %%
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