Hi again Everyone,

You're welcome! Glad you all found the post of the newspaper article about
the starved baby helpful in clearing up some issues.  I, too, am very
disheartened by the whole situation.  The last thing this person should be
doing is giving "education" about breastfeeding to anyone, in my humble
opinion.

Laurie, I read your post about the 5 week old being fed a bottle of EBM at
the LLL  WBW walk.  I would like to point something out that hopefully, will
get us all thinking.  I have had a few mothers recently who did not want to
breastfeed from the breast.  Of course, I know the benefits and I *always*
try to promote BREASTfeeding, but, I have had the occasional mom who just
doesn't feel comfortable with it.  Some of them have shared with me that they
are only breastfeeding because their husband or boyfriend wants them to (way
to go Daddy!), others because they feel that societal pressures to breastfeed
are mounting (YEAH!!!).  Regardless, I feel it's very important for me to
reach out to these mothers on their comfort level.  We all know that any
breastmilk is better than none at all.  You'd be surprised the mothers who
tell me they have NO (emphatically stated) intention of breastfeeding, then
change their mind when I ask them if they've ever considered pumping their
milk and giving it in a bottle (and luckily some then do take baby to the
breast).  After explaining the benefits of nursing from the breast, if I am
still not making any progress, I will work with a mother on expressing her
milk and using a bottle.  I had one mother tell me that I was the first
person who told her she was doing a good job.  She was about to give up on
breastfeeding altogether because she was having latch on problems and baby
became nipple confused, but she was not motivated to correct the problem
because she did not want to nurse from the breast, but all lactation
consultants that worked with her were pushing her to do just that and
admonishing her for not trying hard enough or doing it correctly.  She felt
awful about the entire process at the time she called me, but decided to give
it one last effort.  The first thing I could see when working with her was
that she was perfectly happy just using the pump.  She did not WANT to nurse
from the breast, but felt it was the *only* way to get the baby her milk.
Laurie, I know the mother you're working with has a different set of
problems, but her story made me think about the mother's emotional needs.  If
she feels successful and good about what she's doing, she'll be more
motivated to continue (as any of us would).  This mother I'm telling you
about has continued to pump her milk for her baby who is now over 5 months
old.  She is not exclusively using her milk (sigh), but I continue to
encourage her.  Even a little of her milk is better than none at all.  Since
we don't know what kind of a background the mom we're working with comes
from... could be abuse situations in some cases, I feel it's VERY important
to be in touch with the mother's needs as well as the baby's, in my opinion.
Being a psychology major has really made me do a lot of thinking and
reflecting.  I hope you find this point of view worth contemplating.  Just
for clarification, I do *NOT* advocate pumping and bottlefeeding over feeding
from the breast, unless that is the only way I can see the mother is willing
to make an effort at offering her milk to baby.  Just some *food for thought*
:)

Veronica Scott,
Breastfeeding Peer Counselor, WIC Program

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