This is what I remember about the breastfeeding curriculum in medical school
and residency...
I don't recall any lectures in the first two years of basic sciences.. My
husband remembers having 2 lectures where he went to school. He says this is
when he learned an association between bf and higher IQ. My  junior
rotations included  6 weeks of peds and OB each.Senior electives included a
month each of OB, Newborn nursery,NICU,PICU(in central Florida) and Family
medicine with OB(at a different central Florida Hospital). My junior OB
experience was at 3 different hospitals. I remember having the impression if
a mother chose to breastfeed, she was making a decision that interfered with
our interventions,ie... birth control... No one was discharged without birth
control. During my senior year I recall some moms using the pump and seeing
a freezer filled with breast milk. On rounds I do remember the neonatologist
asking us if the milk of premature mothers is well suited for premature
infants. I don't remember the answer. I do remember doing alot of
calculations on calories/ounce of infant formula to give to preemies based
on weight. Also one of the hospitals prescribed parlodil, the other said
their was not any studies to show that it helped dry up milk quicker.I
remember discharging a lot of mothers with instructions to wear tight
bras(to dry up the milk) for a week.
My residency in Family Medicine was done at the same school. I don't recall
a lot of breastfeeding talks,but our family medicine dept. did promote a
more family oriented birth experience compared to the OB dept.The two
departments quarrelled a lot about intervention in labor. My husband
remembers a well liked family practice attending pumping milk. I did a
prenatal rotation in a rural clinic, I recall a poster listing benefits of
breastfeeding. On that rotation I began to encourage women to breastfeed.
The pediatric residents all had really cool overnight bags with the teddy
bear logo on it. The peds residents were a very fertile group, but I don't
recall any of them talking about breastfeeding their baby.
And I do remember going to two lectures on which formula to use.Same
lecture,but two different years.
Denise Punger MD
Medical College Of Georgia class of 93-who also remembers being taught that
much of what we teach now will be proven wrong by future research
http://doctor.medscape.com/denisepungermd

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