Hi,
a week or so ago, I posted regarding a sick, premie baby who's mother
had weaned after 5 weeks due to appalling undermining from her doctors
and health visitors (IMHO).

At the end of my story, I related:
> Sadly, this pm I got a call to say she had given up and put the baby
> on formula. She said she had "had a long talk with the doctors, who
> felt that since the baby had done so well on such-and-such ABM,
> actually gaining weight in the last two days, it would be better not
> to 'rock the boat' and try to establish breastfeeding".

The good news is the baby is doing well following surgery and is now out
of hospital. The bad news is, the mother has made no further attempt to
breastfeed or pump and regards any discussion of relactation as "pretty
pointless" since she believes the "quality" of her breastmilk is sub-
standard and possibly even harmful to her baby. She believes it would be
"selfish" to try and breastfeed. This evening, I bumped into her at a
party and she was leaking breastmilk so much that I had to lend her some
breastpads. I saw milk leaking all over her dress and my heart was
breaking - her baby should be having that milk! Even a little would help
such a sick baby. She wondered if I knew of any "tricks" to dry up her
milk. I muttered something about sage tea, made a pathetic attempt to
interest her in relactation and changed the subject.

OTOH, this experience has been the catalyst for my deciding "something"
must be done in this town to improve our breastfeeding rates. I am
trying to gather together statistics with the intention of putting my
writing skills into practice at some point.
--
Anna (Mummy to Emma, born 17th Jan 1995, Alice, born 11th Sept 1996,
??? due 18th April 1998)
Email: [log in to unmask]  Web Page: http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna