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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
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Sat, 24 Feb 2007 10:53:44 +0000
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Hi, Karyn-grace, and thanks for taking up the points I made in my post.

You're right that discussing a national issue in an international 
forum has drawbacks, and I explained why 'One IBCLC for every mother' 
could not work in the UK.

I also wasn't aware that peer support was not used much in Canada.
>


Karyn-grace, you said of the peer support that is on offer:

>  those groups come no where near to what LLL
>groups offer.


The peer support I am familiar with is different from LLL groups, and 
reaches a different client group. I don't know exactly how many LLL 
groups there are in the UK, but a look at their website shows about 
80.   There are literally hundreds and now possibly thousands of peer 
supporters  in the UK, and several hundred groups - one of my beefs 
is that there is no central resource where they are all listed, and 
they do tend to come and go.  In my city (pop 250,000) there are four 
groups and maybe 30 or 40 active peer supporters.

Peer support in the UK is lively, active, growing.
>
>I mean no disrespect to anyone here when I say that I find it laughable to
>have a discussion about how we need more peer support and how that is the
>key to increasing breastfeeding rates to six months.


Why is that laughable? The research on peer support certainly shows 
that it does increase  breastfeeding rates to 6 mths, and this is 
research from a wide, international base.

>  It is not possible!
>Last time I checked, peer support services were run by VOLUNTEERS, and their
>numbers are dwindling!


Yes, they are volunteers, but by no means always - I have trained a 
bunch of them in Birmingham (where in one small part of it they have 
30 paid peer supporters) and  there are plenty of other models 
elsewhere in the world where peer supporters are paid. The model in 
Canada where they are always volnteers and dwindling in numbers is 
not copied elsewhere.

>
>Instead, we use role models who we feel are worthy of our adoration.  I
>believe we live in culture of IDOLATRY, not of true, every day role models.
>Those we idolize become our role models.  We can idolize our mothers, our
>sisters, our doctors, Britney Spears, Madonna, Dr. Jack Newman, or the seven
>founders of La Leche League.  But idolize them we do, and mimic them we
>will.
>
>I'm not saying that peer support as an intimate source of role modelling is
>valid and doesn't happen every day.  It does!  But, it is not enough.  If it
>were, everyone baby would be breastfed exclusively to 6 months at this
>point.


???? But not if there are no peer supporters!

I say , look at the research. What does it tell us about influences? 
It does not tell us that women breastfeed because Madonna did so, or 
don't breastfeed because some other celebrity didn't. The facts are 
that women are most likely to breastfeed if their mothers did so, if 
their friends did so, and if they themselves breastfed their own 
first baby.  There are many, many papers showing the influence that 
is powerful is close to home, is in real life, and is unrelated to 
what far-away celebs do.

>
>We must also realize that role modeling works both ways...and for every
>woman that models exclusively breastfeeding, there is another two or three
>who are modelling bottle feeding or supplementing, or what not.


Precisely :)

>
>I am sorry.  I simply do not believe that peer support for breastfeeding
>success for ALL babies is enough.


I have not said that  it is enough - but I think in many settings 
(not speaking for the whole  world!) developing effective peer 
support is more realistic than giving everyone an IBCLC  - given that 
most women  simply will not need specialist lactation support, if she 
has a breastfeeding culture to nurture her.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc,  tutor, UK

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