when someone looks at the mother and baby and says "the latch is perfect,
everything is fine" and the mother says, well, why does it still hurt? here
is what i know about this situation:

-the person doing the assessment doesn't know enough about breastfeeding
management
-because the person doing the assessment doesn't know enough, they tell the
mother everything is fine, meaning, i don't know why you have pain, because i
can't see "anything," so you must either not really be experiencing pain but
you are a real wimp and are complaining about nothing, or it is "normal" for
you to have this pain. this is called "blaming the victim."
-because the mother is clearly told that she is experiencing something
"normal" she reluctantly weans her baby because of her own personal failure,
that is, if she were "tougher" she could handle the "normal" pain and
continue to breastfeed.

not knowing the answer is tough and scary, because it means that you have to
tell someone "i am the authority and yet i don't know what the answer is." if
you follow this up with "but we will find out," then that's a completely
adequate start. what is NOT adequate, decent, or remotely acceptable is to
deny that someone has a problem when there is a presenting symptom that
should not be ignored. pain is a symptom and must be perceived as an
important diagnostic indication. yes, it is fair to eventually decide that
someone is expressing some other emotion through their pain, and you cannot
help them. but that is not the first option.

carol brussel IBCLC
laura nevada lactation
denver co

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