I think many breastfeeding supporters want to encourage mothers to 
breastfeed and tend to not ask mother what her goals are, or what she 
wants to do feeding wise. I see this all the time at my job. Nobody asks 
mom what she wants to do after assessing the breastfeeding, they just 
push forward and try to cure the problem of her using formula, or use 
forceful counseling to convince her to exclusively nurse. There is a 
real issue between those that think all we should be pushing mothers and 
those that think we need to ask mothers first what kind of help they want.

It is respect to have mom vocalize what she wants and then aim your 
counseling or help at meeting her goal. It is not respect to take a mom 
like this and try to "make" her nurse more, or whatever, so that she 
meets our criteria. Plus if your counseling is not aimed at her goals, 
it won't work!

I guess this bugs me so much because I get the referrals to some of 
these moms who are mostly formula feeding but staff feels mom needs BF 
help, and guess what? The moms do not return my phone calls for help, or 
if they do answer the phone they do not want an appointment with me, but 
say they have been helped enough and feel good about what they are doing 
feeding wise. This is not to say we should not encourage mothers or talk 
about the benefits but we have to take each situation individually and 
tailor our help to what the mother wants or needs.

Kathy Eng, BSW, IBCLC

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET email list is powered by LISTSERV (R).
There is only one LISTSERV. To learn more, visit:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html