"This also reeks of the
great white doctor god trying to control the reproductive life of her poor..."

I know the problems that we as lactation consultants have with many things that many doctors (and others) say and do, and I understand where you are coming from, but just let me play Devil's Advocate here for a moment...

I work as the sole lactation consultant in a teaching hospital that delivers about 2000 babies per year. The following is a pretty typical day for me.  We admitted a mom who is an uncontrolled, non-compliant diabetic. She spent much of her previous pregnancy with us, she left the hospital many times AMA (against medical advice) and finally came back in bleeding and in labor and delivered a very early baby. She is pregnant and now back with us again in preterm labor She became pregnant about 3 weeks after her previous baby was born. We have a 15 year old who is with us at 32 weeks gestation. She is pregnant with twins and in preterm labor on bedrest.  This is her 2nd pregnancy. We have a 16 year old who was admitted positive for cocaine and had a fetal demise at 22 weeks.  This is also her 2nd pregnancy. We have a 16 year old that was transferred to us from an abortion clinic for an incomplete abortion. She has Chorio.   We currently have a delivered mother who has had 4 elective abortions in the last 4 years. She is in her early 20's. We have a mom who is a crack addict. She just delivered her 3rd baby at 28 weeks gestation. The other children have been placed in foster care for abuse and neglect. She is pumping breastmilk for her baby even though it will also taken from her. She has been told by a friend that this may help her to keep the baby even though in our county if you are positive for drugs at the time of delivery, your baby is placed in temporary foster care pending any decisions.  We have another 15 year old who is here at 28 weeks with ruptured membranes. And we have a transport on her way from the county jail who is in labor.

All these patients are on my patient list today. Our perinatologists and residents talk to all their patients about birth control options. They give Depo often prior to discharge. Regardless of what opinion I may have about this, I can certainly see their viewpoint. Statistically speaking many of these patients do not return for their 4-6 week exam.   

We have some very fine  physicians who are knowledgeable and caring persons. More that 50% of them are women themselves. They truly care about delivering healthy babies, even though their ideas about how to accomplish that vary widely from mine. 

I don't have a solution, but I do have a problem with lumping these physicians under the stereotype of "great white doctor gods."
I'm sure if I started out with such an attitude I would never have achieved the respect I get from all 3 perinatologists and their resident interns.  They defer to me for all breatfeeding situations. They admit their knowledge deficit and are willing to learn. We can have some healthy dialogue and yes I can learn some things as well!  

Holly McSpadden IBCLC
[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