A friend just passed an interesting piece of "literature" to me.  It was a
"OB/GYN Forum" on infant nutrition- counseling and education regarding
breast or bottle feeding.  As a educational tool, it would raise Coach
Smith's blood pressure.  This piece was full of the traditional formula
company baloney- because guess who put it out.  It talked about a calm and
quiet atmosphere being important to the nursing mother and included old info
as nursing on each breast for fifteen minutes per breast.  "And this time
will gradually increase."  There was all kinds of doubts planted for the
office nurses to pass on to unsuspecting mothers about their milk supply,
backaches from nursing, galactocele (milk tumors) which may occur and a list
of what may prohibit breastfeeding such as medical conditions that require
daily medications.  The bottle feeding section uses the word "same" in many
places.  It actually states "Some families feel it [bottle feeding]actually
increases the bonding experience between the baby and other family members,
because more people can be involved in the feeding process."  Of course, of
the 8 pages, 1 full page was formula ad and another full page advertised
their "Welcome Additon" club. What really got my ire up was that the office
nurse could complete a test, send it in with $6 and receive 1 credit hour!!!
If we would answer the questions correctly in our opinion, we would probably
score incorrectly!  Funny, the references were accepted publications and
resources listed were LLLI and ICEA (where was the ILCA reference?).  In no
place was a lactation consultant mentioned.  The back page was a care plan
for sore nipples written by a IBCLC.

On the other hand...
One of our WIC Peer Counselors was very impressed by her health insurance
company's (Manns) "Timely Tots" program for expectant mothers. They send a
series of modules which matches the stage of mom's pregnancy.  Module #5 for
25-28 weeks had 4 & 1/2 pages of excellent breastfeeding information and
only of 1/2 page of bottle feeding.  She said Module #6 had a terrific
section on dad's adjustments which also was supportive of breastfeeding.
Nice to see there are some companies who are on our side!

Just a note on nipple blanching:
I worked, via the phone, with a mom who was having problems with nipple
blanching and symptoms sounding like vasospasms. She lived in Alaska and it
was winter.  When this mom made a visit to her brother in the lower 48
States she had no problems!  She said her brother had a wood stove and the
house was extremely hot.  When she returned home, so did her symptoms.