Hi all,
Sorry I did not introduce myself in my previous post. I've been lurking (with an occasional post) for years and feel like I know all of you already. I think I keep waiting for some impressive credentials before posting more actively. ;-) I am a mother of three girls, ages 9, 7 and 2, and an LLL Leader on Long Island, in New York. I've been dreaming of becoming an IBCLC for the past four years and hope it will become a reality soon.
Anyway, somewhere (maybe Facebook) I followed a link to a free breastfeeding video in honor of WBW. I was going to share it with my LLL Group, but realized that I should probably watch it first before passing it on. I'm very glad I did, as I will NOT be passing it on.
The teacher is Shari Criso, whom I have not heard of before. She teaches the "Criso Breastfeeding Method." Her website says that she is a CNM and IBCLC. Is anyone here familiar with her?
I've watched the first 7 chapters (about half) of the class so far and progressed from being mildly uncomfortable to somewhat horrified. Some of it came across like an infomercial and seemed to almost guarantee success if you follow her rules. She also uses a lot of her own personal breastfeeding experience, with the assumption that everyone else's experience will be exactly like hers. When she gets to the details of breastfeeding, the tone is very prescriptive, lots of you "must" do this and "must not" do that. She recommends (practically insists) that all mothers must sit upright, use a nursing pillow, put their feet on a nursing stool of a certain height, and support the breast with one hand for the entire feeding. Not that any of these things are bad, per se, but it's a very one-size-fits-all approach. When explaining why she doesn't like the football hold, she states that to keep the baby really close to your body in that position without straining your hand, you would have to practically recline with the baby on top of you. Then she says with a laugh: "Who's going to recline with a newborn?" -- I guess she hasn't heard of Biological Nurturing!
By the end of chapter 6 I started feeling that breastfeeding, with its strict rules, might be too complicated for me (and I've been nursing for 7 of the last 9 years!).
However, it was chapter 7 that really shocked me: according to her, the way to prevent sore nipples is using an organic nipple cream after EVERY feed "from the very first feeding" and LIMITING FEEDING TIMES for the first few days. Silly me, I thought it was good positioning and deep latch that prevented sore nipples... She even has a rule: 5 min/side on day 1, 7 min/side on day 2, 10 min/side on day 3, etc. Hasn't the lactation community been speaking out against this type of rule for at least 40 years? She specifically directs mothers to remove baby from the breast at these set times, and to give a pacifier if baby still wants to nurse. She actually says "Don't let your baby use you as a pacifier" and that she believes it's fine to give a pacifier FROM BIRTH, and that the baby won't get any more colostrum from longer feedings.
There are numerous other examples of advice that seems completely contrary to evidence-based practice, but this message is probably too long already. I can post more later if people are interested. I'm trying to psych myself up to watch the rest of the chapters because it's hard to just sit and listen to totally wrong information imparted with such authority.
Curious to know if anyone else has watched this video. http://sharicriso.com/mybabyexperts/
Jennifer Sokolow
Long Island, New York
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