To the list,

I am posting this comment after alot of thought.....I had privatly E-mailed
Andrew MD earlier with my thoughts and support (I felt he was really being
slammed)  and the more I thought about it, the more I felt I must say
something to everyone else also.  I had hesitated because I do enjoy
participating in discussions and I don't like to create bad feelings.  I
also do not wish to be slammed or ignored by the list (esp if I need help
at a latter date  ;)     )


This suctioning thread has really created alot of debate and I have seen
alot of different opinions and at times some nastiness.  What has really
stood out is the differences in opinion that for me at least sounds
........well......not mainstream.  Please understand this is not a slam or
a criticisim & I am not saying that for these individulas and their clients
that perhaps that approach is in anyway wrong.

However you cannot expect the mainstream establishment to follow suit or
even at times view us as valid when we compare a very necessary procedure
(such as suctioning) for infants to rape. I understand that infants feel
and remember & I also believe that we need to be careful in how we approach
infants when doing necessary but potentially uncomfortable procedures.  But
we turn people off... big time.... and are dismissed as kooks if we are not
careful in how we speak to not only others but to one another (especially
when the list is read by far more people than actually participate...we
need to remember that this is not a private conversation).

There are other MDs that read our posts as well as nurses who are on the
front line so to speak with these infants.  We loose them when we beacome
emotional and make statements without thinking about how they may sound to
someone not as passionate about breastfeeding.

Simply saying something like..... Infants can remember trauma and may be
reluctant to BF after certain traumatic procedures.  To minimize the
infants exposure to trauma, keep suctioning to a minimum depending on the
clinical situation and suction carefully when necessary, follow up with BF
support if infant is reluctant to nurse......This comes off as well thought
out and can easily be applied to a clinical situation. It also makes people
actually THINK about what they are doing    ie (HMMMM...I never thought
about it that way I guess I could be more carefull when suctioning and
perhaps not all the infants I run across need suctioning)

When we make statements like "suctioning is comparable to rape"...many
health care profesionals just tune out....this means nothing to them and
how can they apply that to their practice?....and why would they want to,
because we come off sounding like fanatics?

Again, alot of thought went into this post and I am not trying to offend
ANYONE, but we need to remember that what we say is read by ALOT of people,
some of these people are in a position to help our cause if we present our
ideas as well thought out, without the emotion, in a way that is usefull to
their practice.