Giving birth is a time of profound change, development and learning. In the
very least, giving birth is both a physical and emotional process (many
mothers would state that it is also a spiritual process) that does not end
with expulsion of the baby and placenta. Providing physical care (to some
degree) to the mother is seen as appropriate and is accomplished (to some
degree) in hospital settings, birth centers, etc. Whether new mothers
receive enough physical care is debatable. Yet I feel no doubt that, in
western and westernized societies, the emotional needs of new mothers are
commonly under-recognized and are rarely fully met in medical institutions
or when they return home. If I had it my way, every new mother would be
visited by a culturally competent and overall well-trained mental health
professional just because new mothers are new mothers: vulnerable,
undergoing great change, and deserving of as much emotional support as
their societies can provide them. Extreme or even moderate psychological
issues should not be the sole criteria for receiving the services of a
mental health professional.

Nurses, LCs and other healthcare providers certainly can and should talk
with mothers about their babies, providing validation, companionship,
support, and information. Yet, realistically, how much time do the systems
in which most nurses, LCs and other healthcare providers work allow them to
spend with each mother? When the answer is "little," the system needs
fixing. (Volunteer breastfeeding counselors, in my experience, seem to have
more opportunity to do this kind of extremely important talking with--which
is one reason that the mother-to-mother support they facilitate is so
helpful to many women.)

And think about these statistics: one out of three women will be raped in
her lifetime; forty-two percent of women working for the federal government
during a two-year period reported some form of sexual harassment; by the
age of eighteen, 25 percent of girls will have experienced sexual abuse,
probably by a family member.* Given that such crimes are under-reported,
the actual figures must be higher. This means that a *significant*
proportion of women--the *minimum* range being 25% to 42%--who give birth
and enter into motherhood bring with them a history of physical, sexual,
and emotional maltreatment. This means that many, many, many of the women
that we see in our roles as lactation consultants or volunteer
breastfeeding counselors bring a history of physical, sexual, and emotional
maltreatment to their experience of breastfeeding and to their experience
of our interaction with them. These women may appear to be functioning well
or poorly or somewhere in-between. They may appear to learn quickly or
slowly in their new role as mothers. But regardless of appearances, we will
do our work far better when we realize that many, many, many of the mothers
with whom we interact may be doing the often invisible and sometimes
extraordinarily difficult work of becoming a mother with such a history.
ALL mothers need LOTS of emotional support, regardless of their history.
And many mothers need emotional support that much more. In an ideal world
there would be no stigma attached to women needing and receiving emotional
care of any type or degree, whether it comes from the clerical staff,
nurses, lactation consultants, volunteer breastfeeding counselors, or
mental health professionals. I dream of the day when the full spectrum of
women's needs are recognized as legitimate and are met effectively in all
healthcare settings and in our greater society.

*The New Our Bodies, Ourselves, p. 99

Grateful for the emotional support that all of you are providing to the
women you serve,

Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab, MS clinical psychology, IBCLC, RLC
Ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web site: http://home.attbi.com/~ammawell

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html