Jaye said:

"To me it is a sad testament to our society - sexual abuse, lack of
appropriate help, the desperate (apparent) need for distance between us and
our babies and the strong message of make those babies independent right now
- that more and more moms are choosing this route."


...and this is so true!

There are many issues coming up now that more and more moms are choosing to
provide breast milk for their babies!  Some issues we CAN fix - but some we
cannot.

Interestingly, I've learned a lot about the work I do with Lactation when I
(as a member of the Comprehensive Perinatal Services Program - CPSP -
Consultation Team here in California) started attending education on
"Weathering" - a word being used to describe why the interventions we use
with African Americans in the US seem not to result in better health
outcomes.  (http://qhr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/16/2/221) 

Example: we have been able to improve access to prenatal care, and have
developed some excellent Black Infant Health programs - but still babies are
being born small or early or both!  The "weathering" concept describes the
effect on the mother we are seeing when SHE was a fetus in HER mother's body
while her mother suffered stress during HER pregnancy (prejudice, neglect,
abuse, abandonment).  This would have exposed HER to high stress hormones
(as a fetus) - and she also would be exposed to high stress in her infancy
and childhood and adolescence - so when we do interventions just during the
few months during her pregnancy...can we really expect to change all this
"Weathering" she has suffered?  No. But that doesn't mean we don't keep
trying, keep working on improving access to care, etc...but we need to find
other measures of our effectiveness besides infant weight and prematurity -
because we may not be able to affect those outcomes!  (And of course we need
to improve and reduce FAMILY stress in general to try to reduce these stress
reaction that affect everyone - African American males suffer more
hypertension, strokes, etc.)

So back to breastfeeding support - we can't expect to "fix" all the issues a
woman has suffered during her lifetime during the few weeks or months we see
her with her baby - but we CAN offer her information, rationales for why
skin to skin would be better for her and her baby.  AND we MUST accept her
where she is and then help her to accomplish HER goals, not ours!   Thus not
being part of the stressor, but being a HEALER.

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC
Northern California, USA

PS - When you write, it would be very helpful if you let us know where you
are - especially when requesting information - thus I know what I could
suggest (Internet resources vs a person I know in your town) that would be
helpful.

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