<<There is no earthly reason for mandatory nursery time for most healthy
babies born by C/sec - newborns can be positioned and assisted by nursing
staff to breastfeed in the recovery room, even when the mother is still
coming round from a general anesthetic, and mothers and babies can and
should room in, or bed in, in the normal way.>>

I absolutely agree, Pamela! But, it is *hospital policy*. The same *hospital
policy* which prevents a mother from getting off her back after her water
has broken (the risk of of cord prolapse is what they claim!) It is the same
*hospital policy* which prevents VBAC. *Hospital policy* that all mothers
have to have continual EFM the entire time they are in labor. Whom do you
fight, which battle do you pick?

This is the same state which claims the 3rd highest obesity rate in the
nation (28.6%), 1st in the nation for adult diabetes (10.4%), 2nd for
hypertension (32.5%).

We also, unfortunately, claim a huge exodus of physicians from the state,
d/t "legal stuff" (cost of malpractice, amount of financial awards, length
of time for legal backlash) and the *hospital policy* is all they can fall
back on. They feel they simply cannot afford to make policy changes, because
it is too risky, financially.

The *hospital policy* helps make the mothers' choices more difficult, more
frustrating. Mothers quit trying, because it is too hard to do it the way
they want, so they give up and let the system do it for them. As you can see
by the results, this effort is not helping the state of West Virginia.

<<It's too easy to blame a less-than-ideal birth for breastfeeding failure.
What we need to do is to beef up our breastfeeding advocacy, and to initiate
hospital protocols (eg borrow one or two from the BFHI) which can work
around the early difficulties that C/secs and drug-filled labours seem to
place in the way of "ideal" breastfeeding.>>

Where do you start? There are so many fires burning, trying to narrow down
something is overwhelming, which is why I have chosen small battles, on an
individual basis.

<<That being said, now that I live in a country where breastfeeding is
clearly not seen to be very important, and almost anything is laid down as a
perfectly valid reason why it's OK for babies to be bottle-fed, I share your
frustrations.

Pamela Morrison IBCLC
Rustington, England (formerly Zimbabwe)>>

Pamela, I suspect most of the members of this list live somewhere where we
would fall into the "breastfeeding isn't that important" category. It's
pervasive. Trying to keep the focus isn't always easy.

Best wishes,
Sam Doak

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