Susan writes:
>
>
>PS. I actually think that mothers should be able to weigh their own
>babies. There is evidence to suggest that you can train mothers at
>low literacy levels to interpret growth charts appropriately.
I don't worry about women weighing their healthy babies for fun and
for interest, using the post office scale, the supermarket fruit 'n'
veg scale, or their own bathroom scales, any more than I would worry
about them choosing whether to take their babies to the hairdresser
or cutting the baby's hair themselves or tying it up in a huge velvet
bow. I would like to think someone might explain that frequent
weighing of healthy babies in these circumstances *is* for fun and
interest only (like hair styling) and not a reliable way of
assessing health or nutrition.
I'm sure it is true that low literacy women can be trained to
interpret growth charts correctly - though I don't see funding for
the necessary training happening any time soon anywhere :)
Here, we've had about 25 years to train health visitors to interpret
them correctly and this is, to put it politely, still a work in
progress.
I think, though, that weight is *not* an isolated item of info to be
'interpreted'. It is a *piece* of a jigsaw that goes with appearence,
behaviour, the baby's history, birth sequelae, etc etc etc. Weight
is not an isolated event, either, but a series of recordable events
over time.
> It is akin to the arguments that used to be put forward that women
>shouldn't have access to home pregnancy tests because they needed
>qualified counselors or health care practitioners to help them
>interpret the results of the test.
I never heard those arguments, but of course they are spurious.
> I think it is CULTURE that pushes women to interpret growth in ways
>that are not helpful.
Totally. How will encouraging and supporting frequent weighing by
peer counsellors and mothers reduce the impact of this, when so many
HCPs interpret weight so poorly, too?
Again, while agreeing that culture can be changed, I don't see the
fixation on weight (in the West? With the obsession with weight that
*all* women are aware of, throughout their lives?) disappearing soon.
Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK
--
http://www.heatherwelford.co.uk
http://heatherwelford.posterous.com
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