To add to other post:
Remembering that breastfeeding is a dynamic process, the focus needs to be 
on getting mother and baby together as much as possible and being as 
low-tech as is possible for that mother and that baby in their 
circumstances..Funnily enough, four very simple strategies I regularly find 
can help are:
1) If I get up and leave the room to do something and leave Mum and baby to 
their own devices - give her some "space'.
2) If I suggest the mother gets up and walks round for a few moments, taking 
the pressure off her. (Then I suggest it might work at home, too.)
3) A nap, or at least a rest on the bed. So simple, but I've seen it turn 
around the situation where mother and baby have both become frustrated at 
the mother's anxious attmpts to latch; mastitis that isn't responding; low 
supply related to overwhelming weariness. It's a tip I learnt many, many 
years ago from LLL. A "holiday in bed with the baby" on the weekend is even 
better, but even a morning will do.
4) Encouraging the mother to notice her baby's hands and what they do in the 
process of getting onto the breast, and also the use of the little hands to 
stimulte the MER by pressing against the breast. (I first noticed this back 
in the 1990s when I realised that calves and goat kids head butt the 
mother's tough, leathery udder to encourage a letdown, and so I started to 
obsever what babies do, instead.)
This isn't to say that there aren't circumstances where we need all our 
hard-earned skills and even some technology - and we do - but don't let us 
forget that sometimes it is the low-tech skills that help us help the mother 
to turn the corner.
My 2 cents' worth.

Virginia
In Brisbane, Queensland. 

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

Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
COMMANDS:
1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome