Dear Lactnet Friends:

I have worked in 4 hospitals, and seen nipple shield overuse for a long
time.

The hospital system often puts pressure on everyone, including the LC, to
MAKE breastfeeding occur. I hear this often at professional meetings, where
1 LC can see over 30 women in the postpartum unit in one shift. This is far
from optimum care.

There is never a rush to make a baby breastfeed. Mother can do s2s and hand
expression for several days, and have follow-up when she is discharged.
Mothers need accurate information and encouragement to be able to relax and
take charge of their infant feeding in a different way then expected.

No one has the responsibility to "get the baby latched" except the baby.
When we relax, the mother will relax too. All she has to do is keep the
baby in the breastaurant, express and spoon feed.

A relationship has to be built, not forced.

In community, I understand, and have used (rarely) a shield to help a
bottle-fed baby transition to the breast, to deal with an oversupply, or to
help a mom who has been struggling for a week or more and who is ready to
throw in the tool unless breastfeeding occurs soon. As does Dr. Eglash,
there is regular follow-up. A nipple shield is a tool, and has value in
specific situations.

My protest is about its overuse in a healthy term situation when we have
more physiologic alternatives.

Mothers can be encouraged to engage in anything; a local children's
hospital advises mothers to breastfeed 16 (yes, sixteen) times a day and
pump and give the baby extra mother's milk after every other feed for a day
or two, when a baby's bilirubin is high. Mothers come back after 2 days,
tired, and very pleased with themselves for turning their yellow babies
pink. Who would ever have thought that a mother would breastfeed so much
and pump? Yet they do, because they are engaged with the process,
understand what is going on, and have the support to sustain. In this
facility the support comes from a pediatrician IBCLC, a RN/IBCLC and
several CLCs.

warmly,
-- 
Nikki Lee RN, BSN, Mother of 2, MS, IBCLC, CCE, CIMI, ANLC, CKC
Author:* Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Breastfeeding Therapy*
www.nikkileehealth.com
https://www.facebook.com/nikkileehealth

*Get my FREE webinar series*

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