Here is a quote from an article from a Toronto newspaper on Friday,
December 12.  It comes from an article called "Notes from the
new-mother zone" in a column which takes articles from anyone who
wants to write in.  Obviously it describes a new mother's experiences,
though so self centred that I find it hard to believe.  So uninvolved
with her baby, that she had time to write two full columns.  Naturally
the article is illustrated with a bottle even though she is apparently
breastfeeding.

"Then Claudia, a lactation consultant and a nice lady about eight
months pregnant herself, arrived.  She spent at least a half-hour just
watching him suck.  Her diagnosis was that he was not latching
properly, so he was getting large doses of air along with the milk.
Hence his extremely bad mood.

"She suggested I use a feeding tube, which means that you express your
milk and then feed it to the baby through a tube taped to your finger,
or breast.  Easy for her to say.  On her way out, she told my husband
that her own husband was still resisting the idea of her nursing when
her baby arrived.  'It's so intrusive and demanding,' she said.  The
fact that she was teaching other women how to nurse but was not sure
she wanted to go through it herself was not lost on my husband.  It
went, of course, right over my thick, postpartum head."

Is this what a lactation consultant is supposed to do?  Besides what
sounds like a poor approach (won't judge, since it is second hand),
but truly, a lactation consultant who is not sure she wants to
breastfeed?  How are we certifying lactation consultants (actually she
may not be certified, I realize, just calling herself a lactation
consultant).

Jack Newman, MD, FRCPC