Here is another non-threatening way to ask a mother about possible abuse.


I was helping a woman who had been suffering on and off from mastitis for
almost a year. We had tried practically everything, but there seemed to
be no rhyme or reason for her attacks. Eventually I began to wonder if it
was caused (or at least aggravated) by stress of some kind, but I was
anxious not to cause MORE stress by putting her on the spot, so I asked
in a roundabout way. Instead of confronting her directly, I went over a
whole list of things that might contribute to mastitis, including, of
cause, stress, and sure enough she responded. It turned out that her
husband was an alchoholic, a binge drinker, and his binges coincided with
her outbreaks of mastitis.

In the same way, we might run off a list of possible reasons why a mother
might have trouble letting down her milk, including abuse. It would at
least give the woman the idea that OTHER mothers have had similar
problems, and that she is not alone. With any luck she might open up
sufficiently for us to be able to point the way to community resources.

Norma Ritter, IBCLC
private practice in Big Flats, NY
[log in to unmask]

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