Esther, you crack me up! And I know *exactly* what you're describing,
because it sounds so very much like the "classes" I used to do postpartum!
People *loved* the classes, and the other nurses refused to do them because
"we can't do it like Cathy does", and women said they found them helpful,
and *fathers* actually seemed to find them very reassuring and helpful, and
everyone said I was "so good" at doing it. I think I started to believe my
own press.

But now, several years later, I have to say that I wouldn't do the classes
the same way any more, if at all. With the early discharges we have now, I
don't think that the group classes are the most effective way to help new
moms "take in". I used to try to get them to come on the third pp day,
before discharge, so they were farther along in the taking in-taking hold
sequence, but still...

What works? I don't have a definitive answer, of course. I do think that
one-to-one may be better, and that in their own home is probably better than
in hospital, and that involving the partner or the grandma or whoever will
be helping is probably essential. I do all my LC visits at the mom's house,
because I just think that it's way easier for them, better for the babies,
and probably more effective. But who knows - Diane W. and I have had clients
go back & forth between us, and we are *very* consistent in what we say, and
they appear to have never heard the information before. But to pay for this
kind of service, in the "real world", for everyone who needs it? Fat chance!

Cathy Bargar RN IBCLC Ithaca NY

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