You go girl! Can I quote that? Sincerely, Pat in SNJ
Sent: Monday, June 03, 2002 8:40 PM
Subject: guilt
> Gosh, this issue of guilt just fascinates me. I keep *thinking* about it.
> I have seen health care professionals use guilt about many issues, ie
> smoking, car seats, immunizations, circumcision, etc...(and no I don't
> wanna talk about the later two on Lactnet, thanks)...but why would we be
> concerned about protecting a mother from information that coudl
potentially
> save her baby's life, or at least his/her health, ie prevent her from
> knowing the truth about breastfeeding? Because, there is more to this
> issue than to those other issues. This is a personal issue. It cuts to the
> quick of who we are. Who our families are. What our parenting styles are.
>
> The decision of whether to breastfeed or not is a defining brick in the
> foundation of who we are as people, as mothers, as parents. We don't have
> a legal choice about whether we put our babies in car seats or not. We do
> have a choice about whether we smoke around a baby or not. And we have a
> choice about whether we feed our babies formula or not. Many, (not all)
> mothers feel sheepish about using formula when they could have breastfed.
> It is hard to admit that we sometimes will choose what is inferior because
> we ourselves have no emotional space or resources to do what we know would
> be best.
>
> We live in a culture that is fast, that is about ME, and that supports
> detachment and avoids living in the moment. Health care providers need to
> get out of their own heads, and need to speak the truth and stop dealing a
> load of fertilizer when talking about breastfeeding. If they didn't
choose
> to do it, or their wives didn't, that's their choice and problem. If they
> weren't supported to breastfeed, it is our problem as a society. If one
> chooses to downplay a simple and beautiful intervention because we feel
> that we must patronize and protect others from the truth in order to
> validate our own poor choices, that is ethically negligent and inexcusable
> at best.
>
> Kathleen
>
> Kathleen B. Bruce, BSN, IBCLC co-owner Lactnet, Indep. Consultant
> http://together.net/~kbruce/kbbspin.html
> LACTNET Archives http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/lactnet.html
>
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