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Subject:
From:
Jennifer Davis <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 11 Dec 2001 13:05:06 -0500
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Hello to all.  I am in need of some assistance here in my understanding.

I work primarily as a birth doula, but have increasingly found myself
offering more and more breastfeeding help, and also more and more referrals
to IBCLCs.  In the last several mothers I have worked with, every one of
them has been sent home with a supplemental nursing system, with formula, of
course, because "they said that the baby has lost too much weight."  Excuse
my ignorance here, but isn't it normal for breastfeeding babies to lose a
bit of weight?  I have always been taught that when mom's milk comes in, if
latch and milk transfer are as they should be, baby will regain the lost
weight and continue to grow.  The last mom I worked with, who just went home
from the hospital yesterday, told me that the nurses had given the baby
formula a couple of times because she wasn't peeing and pooping enough, and
they also gave her a suppository (!!) to help.  I was aghast!  They also
told her that the baby was jaundiced, so it was necessary to keep her in the
nursery all day long under the lights.  I asked how often they were bringing
her back for feedings, and mom said, "Well, it should be anytime now.  It's
almost 5, and they took her back to the nursery around 1:30.  They said I
could only have thirty minutes at a time."  Mom and baby went home yesterday
with a bili blanket and an SNS.  Another recent mom - no jaundice here -
also went home with an SNS.  Neither of these moms has been given any
instructions about when to discontinue its use, and very little instruction
about how much formula to use.  They've just been told to use it every time
they breastfeed so that the baby will get enough.

In the hospitals where you work, and the populations with which you work, is
there just an inherent distrust in the process of breastfeeding?  Is it
thought that colostrum is just somehow not enough to nourish babies?   I am
so disheartened.  Both of the aforementioned mothers had vacuum extractions
as well - and for what?  Who knows?  It strikes me more and more that as
mothers choose interventive births, they are in effect choosing problematic
breastfeeding.  Are you seeing the same correlations?  I would love to hear
some of your thoughts on this matter, off list if you'd like.

Sorry so rambly!
Jennifer D
BirthBasics

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