This is the point I was trying to make. I know that I am successful at
promoting BF - but I am not going to change my methods in response to abuse.
I still prefer to point out that 'BF is best because e.g. BF babies are less
likely to develop bronchiolitis'.....I think that parents and staff are
generally convinced by this. It is just a different way of achieving the
same goal.
Tony Knox
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sharon Knorr" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2001 11:23 PM
Subject: peds and breastfeeding
Had a very interesting conversation this week which brought home the reality
of what can happen when a pediatrician strongly encourages moms to
breastfeed, the way that many on this list want them to do. This young ped
is also an IBCLC, BTW, and came into a local group practice hoping to keep
more women breastfeeding and also to open a bf clinic-type operation in
addition to his regular practice. Well, long story short, several women
left the practice altogether because of the pressure that they felt to
breastfeed from this doctor. Since he is the only one taking new patients,
the whole practice lost patients and income because of this. Needless to
say, there was a little sit-down and he has scaled back his plans - not
abandoned, but recognizes he must move more slowly or ........ He is a
really nice guy and I can't imagine that he strong-armed anyone, but
obviously the message got across. Now if you have the money, or have been
around long enough to have the clout, you could run a practice this way and
if you lose some moms, so what. But most docs today are in group practices
and young ones certainly don't have any clout.
Personally, I don't think that Tony was a troll. I think that the issues
that he brought up are things that we must deal with on a daily basis and
honestly, I don't find it so easy or so black and white either. We can
quote all the statistics we like, but most people look at their immediate
group of friends and families to make decisions about many issues. Most
people have friends/family that have obviously suffered from the effects of
too much smoking, drinking, eating, etc. and it makes sense to them to be
careful about these things. But if everyone in that group has formula-fed
their babies and all of those babies were quite healthy and happy and smart
(or the bf weren't any different or even had more illness) then telling that
person that formula is poison or giving it is tantamount to child abuse
makes absolutely no sense to them at all. Not only that, but it offends
them because you are accusing people that they love and respect of doing
something really terrible. That person is certainly not going to be
convinced of the harm of AF, and that person is also then likely to go out
and tell a lot of other people about the crazy lactation consultant that
accused their sister/mother/best friend of child abuse because they used
formula. And it will all get blown out of proportion, but the damage will
be done. This is where we lose a lot of people.
Personally, I don't think that scare tactics make a lot of sense. I
remember in the 60's when adults were telling us that if we took drugs we
would all end up in mental wards thinking that we were oranges or something
crazy like that. Well, we all looked around and saw a lot of people who
were smoking dope and even dropping acid that seemed perfectly OK ( except
for being stoned of course) and decided that adult were idiots and we
weren't going to listen to much of anything that they had to say about
drugs. Of course, after years of experience we learned that it wasn't so
harmless and some of our friends were not in such good shape. But if you
turn off the listening after the first sentence, then everything else is
lost.
I do think that HCPs need to be more supportive and also forthcoming about
the dangers of formula supplementation. But it is a slow process. If the
AAP wants to put their money where their mouth is, they should go after
Enfamil in a really big way and get this new promotion of theirs shut down
ASAP - I also heard about it from a mom and it is appalling.
The thing is, I think that most people do realize that there are problems
with using formula and are open to education in that area. We need to keep
chipping away at the myth of the total safety of AF. But let's be smart
about it. It is easy to preach to the choir. Playing a tough room is a
whole different story and may require a lot of different tactics. Let's
keep the dialogue going and be inclusive with our thinking. I think that
there are probably a lot of lurkers out there grappling with issues that
they are afraid to post about because of the response they know that they
will get. While I appreciate the vast amount of practical knowledge that I
have attained through this forum, I do think that we can spend some time
looking at some of these other issues without getting too emotional - so
much of breastfeeding success is in the mind and we still don't quite know
what to do about that.
Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BSMT, ASCP, IBCLC
Newark, NY (near Rochester on Lake Ontario)
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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