Hello lactnetters,
Ok here goes!  I have been "lurking" for over a year now.  First let me
introduce myself.  My name is Rhonda Thompson, I am an RN with 10 years ob
experience and am certified as a childbirth educator through Lamaze
International.  I teach Lamaze, Prenatal, babysitting, and sibling classes as
well as work on registry in our High Risk Prenatal Clinic.  I started a new
position (part time) at our hospital 2 months ago working with our full time
lactation consultant on our OB floor.  Well let me try to make my story
short.  I attended a Certified Breastfeeding Educator workshop 2 weeks ago.
We were asked to send one person from our group to the front to talk about
how our hospital could get closer to being "baby friendly", well our group
consisted of 5, me, and 4 other RNs from labor and delivery, ICN, and our
High Risk Clinic.  We spoke that our biggest hurdle would be to get rid of
all the free formula/gift packs we give out to the mothers.  Our spokesperson
(not me) also said that our lactation consultant and her partner (me) I
raised my hand so they knew who i was, refused to eat the donuts/bagels etc.
that the formula reps bring in, and we wouldn't even use their free pens.
The next group that went up said they thought it was just fine to use and
abuse the formula reps and get them to pay for as many of their inservices as
they could.  Now at this point the speaker spoke up to say she thought it was
ok to use your formula reps to pay for your inservices and continued with a
story how she "used" them once to sponser one of her inservices but would
only let him stand up and say "breast milk is best".  The whole time she is
saying this she is looking directly at me.  I am not looking too happy at
this point.  So, here is a speaker who is telling a room of 200 people
(Certified Breastfeeding Educators) that it is ok to use the formula reps.  I
at this point said nothing with my arms crossed, not smiling, leaning back in
my chair.  How should I have handled this?  What do you think I should have
done?  Were any of you there?

Thanks so much for listening.....................Rhonda D. Thompson RN,
ACCE,CBE
                                                               From Cedar
Falls, Iowa

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