Tina,

What a great post !  My feelings and experience exactly !  Coaxing the mother
to hang in is so important, and providing a perspective that she doesn't have
- that most babies do latch on eventually.  One  baby I worked with didn't
latch on until 13 weeks. She had a very determined mother - young, 26 years
old, who after all our initial interventions opted to bottle feed  but kept
offering the breast. One day the baby just did it ! I love the support group
idea. The mother of the baby I just mentioned did come to my regular new
mother group. She was so proud after a couple of sessions when she bottle fed
and was urged to keep trying by the other Moms, to finally attend with her
baby at breast.

Beverley Rae, MSW CSW IBCLC
private practice,
Manhasset, NY