I love using metaphors in my practice.  Over the years I've come up with a
few that seem to illustrate really well the points that I wish to make with
my clients, most of whom are Hispanics who want to breastfeed, but are
convinced they can't:

Some mothers with perceived milk insufficiency will tell me that they "wait
until the breasts are full" before nursing.  The metaphor I like to use in
that case is that that's like saying you're out of breath, but are going to
"wait until your lungs are full of air" before breathing.  (that always gets
me a laugh)  Then I make the point that just like the *act* of breathing is
what brings oxygen into the lungs, it is the *act* of nursing that produces
milk, not the other way around.  I use lungs as metaphors for breasts rather
a lot, and other organs generally. Sometimes I'll treat the subject with a
bit humor:  "Breasts are a lot like lungs," I'll say.  "You've got 2 of
them, you have to use them often or they won't work, & there's no limit to
how often they can be used!"

Here's a similar example of using bodily parts a woman *doesn't* doubt to
build confidence in the part of her body that she *does* doubt: when a
mother is expressing doubt that her breasts will function correctly (which
happens on a daily basis at WIC in Miami), sometimes I'll compare that to
doubting that her stomach will digest today's lunch.  Does she typically
wake up in the morning consumed with doubt about whether her stomach will
digest what she's planning to eat that day? Does she believe that, for no
reason that requires medical attention, some day her stomach will just
mystically stop working?  Does she go out and purchase an artificial
stomach, just in case?   Does she spend time worrying about whether her
lungs will work, or her spleen, or her heart, etc?  Does she panic about her
lungs because, after all, she just took a breath only a few seconds ago, and
:::gasp::: is it really okay to be breathing again so soon?  Barring any
*overt physical reason*, I tell her, it makes no more sense to doubt your
breasts than it does to doubt your lungs or stomach or other organs.

Blunt, but it makes the point <bg>.......
Regina Roig Lane, BS IBCLC for Miami-Dade County WIC, where no woman doubts
her lungs, but every woman doubts her breasts

> -----Original Message-----
> If possible, please share all your replies with us. It would be great to
> have a compilation of metaphores like this.
>
> Thanks for bringing this up.........
>
>

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