Maurenne, you asked for the top three interventions that interfere with bf in a
hospital setting.

I know that this is not what you wanted, but feel moved to say that in my
experience the hospital setting itself is one of the practices which can have
the greatest negative impact on breastfeeding.

Of course, women who give birth at home are self selected, and so skew any
outcomes.   However having had one hospital birth and one at home, I would say
there was a huge difference in the feeling of 'ownership' of the early
breastfeeding experience at home.

(I gave birth at home the second time because after one hospital experience the
only way I would have returned was in an ambulance -- partly because of how the
staff handled breastfeeding the first time --  and I have always been thankful
that, by law in Britain, every woman has the right to choose to have her baby at
home.)

Perhaps it does no harm to remind ourselves that hospital birth is a fairly
recent phenomenon which was not designed for the convenience of women or for
breastfeeding outcomes.

Magda Sachs
Breastfeeding Supporter, BfN, UK

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