Well I am trying to get caught up on what seems like a million digests (I love reading all that you guys have been up to in the few days I have been away from the computer!).  It's come to my attention that I again need to clog the list with clarification about something that I said.

When I made my original post the other day about my perspective on ABM and birthing after being back in that situation, I used two words that offended one person on this list.  The words were crap (that I don't consider profane) and dam*.  This person took the time to tell me personally that I was alienating myself and probably offending more people, for that I am sorry.  

Let me explain something though... we often talk about the cycles in being an LC, the highs and the lows, the frustrations and the joys, I think that sometimes we loose sight of what it's like to be that new mom who is bombarded with "information" in the hospital.  We tell our clients to refuse product that's sent home, or to just throw it out once we are home.  We try to explain that even saying we are breastfeeding will get us bags of things we don't need or want, and we try our best to explain how these unwanted and unneeded things will just interfere with breastfeeding.  We hope and pray that our clients understand what we are saying and that they will make the right choice.  Well my point of perspective was that of a new mom, myself, who not only was choosing to breastfeed, told the hospital that I was a CLC, helped them with questions that they had about being baby friendly and even helped the pp nurse with a question from one of her patients.  I educated the nursery staff on tandem nursing, I even referred a l&d nurse to the course that I took to become a CLC.  So my point was, after doing all of that, I still got sent home with "stuff".  If I was overwhelmed and intrigued by it, then how do we expect our clients not to be?   While new moms who choose to nurse may not use the "stuff" in that cute ABM bag, she may use the bag, not realizing that the mere use of it is helping ABM companies, advertising for them, etc.    It's hard to practice what we preach, especially now that I will have a fresh memory in my head of how it felt to have all this "stuff" and information given to me, given by people who are supposed to know things, intelligent people.  Even though I know their intelligence isn't any higher than my own, it's interesting to see how much stock we put in someone wearing a white coat, even when their information isn't correct!

So again, my apologies, especially to the list moms, if I offended you all by my use of those two words.  Like I said before, I was trying to put my personal perspective on the situation, we are politically correct in all of our dealings with clients, maybe it's time we start being more blunt?   We learn so much from texts, from each other, and from our clients, sometimes it's interesting to see what we learn from our own experiences.

And thanks to all of you who sent me personal notes of congratulations, there are so many of you, I will try and answer you each, thanks again!  

Melisa( who is baby mooning, in COLD Utah!)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Did you hear? Breast is Best!
Certified Lactation Counselor
IBCLC Exam Candidate
Homeopathic Counselor in training
www.nurturingmama.com  

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