I received this e-mail as a result of my frequent postings on the misc.kids
newsgroups.  I hesitate to respond without actually seeing the article in
question.  Has anyone in the Fort Worth/Dallas area seen this article?  Anyone
else want to respond?

Forwarded Message:

I recently read an article in our local child development "newspaper"
that made my blood boil. These Newpapers are published under the name
Ft.Worth Child and Dallas Child, but I believe they are also a loosely
organized national chain that shares articles all over the country,
under each cities name.

Back to the horrendous article. (If you like I could scan it in and
email or fax that to you, too.) It was ostensibly (sp?) an article
about the dangers of forcing mothers out of the hospital too early
after delivery, but it began with what I feel was either a grossly
ignorant account of breastfeeding or possibly a completely fictitious
story. The articles' author asserted this happened to her: that she
began breastfeeding in the hospital, under the guidance of a nurse
(it's somewhat ambiguous whether this nurse had any special lactation
training) and after having had a breastfeeding class prior to
delivery. She said she tried "desperately" to tell the nurse in the
hospital that she had no milk, (Bear in mind this is hours post
partum, not three or four days.) but the nursing staff just told her
the baby was latching on fine and not to worry. She then said she
noticed her baby's worsening condition at home and called a lactation
consultant, who assured there was nothing to worry about, the baby was
latching on fine. She again goes through this stuff about trying to
"desperately" communicate that she had no milk. She even says the
lactation consultant told her , if it would make her feel better she
could give water with a dropper or cup. To which, she parenthetically
states "Oh great nutrition in that!". Again this is about two days
post partum. She then ends up rushing the baby to the hospital where
it goes into intensive care for some time. All of this is supposed to
be because she was released too early and a real doctor would have
listened to her that she had no milk.

I wrote to Ft. Worth Child and pointed out that:

1. Milk does not come in for three to four days and that babies
require colustrum during that time.

2. Dehydration has nothing to do with lack of nutrition from colustrum
and not having milk.

3. It is highly unlikely that a trained nurse and a lactation
consultant would not notice the very obvious signs of dehydration.

4. That anyone who read any reasonable child care book would know that
milk did not come in till day three or so, let alone someone who had a
breastfeeding class, a consult with a nurse and a consult with a
lactation consultant.

Anyway, today they called and wanted permission to run the letter,
which I gave. I am expecting a very negative response from them and
possibly a lot of "hysterical" breastfeeding kills kinda nonsense from
the media and community.

I was hoping that everyone who is breastfeeding advocate would check
out there area to see if the original article appeared in their local
magazine and protest it. If they don't have it, I can also supply
address, fax and phone numbers for the Fort Worth and Dallas Child.

The Fort Worth Child address is :

Lauren Publications, Inc.
4125 Keller Springs Road
Suite 146
Dallas, Texas 75244
Phone : 214-447-9188
Fax:214-447-0633


The article was "Bouncing Babies Out", in the January 1996 issue.
(Vol.4, No.5) by Sally Giddons Stephenson.

------------------------------------------

She also points out that the association of local parenting magazines has a
web-site <http://family.com>  I explored it and found no reference to the
specific article.

J. Rachael Hamlet
Owner, Lactivist Mailing List
Author, The Breastfeeding Advocacy Page
http://www.clark.net/pub/activist/bfpage/bfpage.html