Hello everyone,
I just got a call from a friend (and a very good labor room nurse who was
excellent when I was pregnant with my son). She has been asked and has
accepted to take over the childbirth classes at the local hospital. She is
going to be needing help or advice of any kind, so if anyone has experience
with this, or is a childbirth instructor in any of the methods(Bradley,
Lamaze, etc) that could give a brief overview of what the methods are like or
refer to someone nearby (Scranton, PA). Also I and possibly my coleaders will
be helping or at least welcome to present info on breastfeeding-- (Hooray!)
She is very much for accomodating mother's choices for birth and supporting
breastfeeding-if she had a computer she might be one of us! I think there are
1 or 2 recently certified LCs as staff nurses there who she will also ask to
become involved. This is such a great opportunity to make much needed
improvements in the options moms have in this area--we rather tend to be
15-20 yrs behind the times!! I'm excited and will help her any way I can, but
don't have the childbirth resources--we had a local ICEA at one time but it
folded due to no one available wanting to run it!! So....any advice, help,
resources, etc., and the permission to share it with her will be gratefully
appreciated. I'd really like to see this happen with some positive results
for the moms in the Scranton area-it's loooong overdue.
Then the other hosp will be getting some real competition; possibly effect a
change there at some time, too. We had done visits at the other hosp, but
were constantly being called and told not to give any info, just show our
faces and leave, because(for example) telling a mom to nurse more often and
that giving water might hinder her developing milk supply is telling the mom
to go against doctor's orders and we can't have that! Obviously a few wanted
us there but there was a lot of resistance from staff as well, who didn't
wish to support breastfeeding.
Thanks much!!
Georgeanne Mattise, LLLL, MT, NFP inst.
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