With all due respect - not one person who has discussed this topic stated in
any way that ALL cases require pumping or technical assistance.  I think
those of us here are quite aware that teaching is of utmost importance and I
believe that we all do so to the best of our ability.  I believe that we all
look at each individual situation and use our professional judgment from
there as to what will (or will not) protect the baby and the breastfeeding.
And I do not believe for one second that ANY of us on this list believe that
using equipment rather teaching will save breastfeeding and babies.  No one
made the assumption that pumping and bottlefeeding will solve all problems.
I find myself taken aback at the comments that suggest otherwise.  

 

Re pumping and bottle feeding solving symptoms and not problems - yes, there
are cases where that may happen.  However, the women I work with whose
babies are not feeding effectively at breast for whatever reason are
grateful to have such an option - and they usually do get back to breast.
The key is to fix the problem - and that cannot always be fixed at the
breast.  Each case MUST be treated as individual.  They are not all the
same.  You cannot teach a micro-preemie to be better on the breast than he
is capable of doing.  He can only do what he can do and needs to grow and
develop to get to fully effective BF skills.  You cannot teach a traumatized
at birth baby to open wider if his jaws are so locked up and bruised from
forceps that he simply can't open.  You must sustain the milk supply and get
treatment for the baby in order to get to fully effective (and comfortable)
BF.  I can give example after example.the bottom line - we have to look at
each circumstance on it's own.  Some problems take time and treatment to
solve.  There is no "One size fits all" in this field - and I don't see
where anyone has said or suggested otherwise.

 

There are many circumstances that we run into each day that test our
abilities to teach the baby and the mother - and sometimes it is not
possible to make either do more than they can do at that moment.  I am
working with a frustrated mom of a baby born at 34 wks.  At 37 wks her home
health care nurse told her to stop ALL pumping and supplementing as baby
APPEARED to be doing well on the breast.  So mom did what she was told.
There was no formal evaluation of baby's ability to BF.  1 week later mom
takes baby to Dr for a weight check - there had been NO weight gain at all.
Dr is pissed, baby is hungry, Mom is scared.  (and you can bet that nurse
will get an earful from the Dr!)  Moms milk supply is now low and she is
struggling to bring it back up, baby is now back on breast and bottle (with
ABM supplementation to moms severe distress) - mom is doing pre-post weights
to measure intake at breast and is seeing first hand why her baby did not do
well.  Sometimes she has a good feeding - sometimes not.  I can teach her
all I want and all she needs - but in this case the BABY is UNABLE to
sustain herself at breast alone and requires supplementation in order to
survive.  We'll keep working with mom, baby, pump and scale until baby is
clearly able to sustain herself on breast alone.  That is how we fix this
particular problem.  

 

My thoughts - my opinions - professional and otherwise.  

 

Jaye

 

 

 

All due respect returned, but in my, perhaps not so humble, opinion our
profession is in big trouble if we start to believe that the use of technial
equipment rather than teaching and learning good at breast techniques and
breastfeeding management are the thing that will save breastfeeding and
babies.

  Breastfeeding is about a baby at breast, working on and with effective
techniques and lactation consultancy is about teaching mothers and babies
learn and use effective techniques and the basics of lactation.

  And again, I do recognise and respect the fact tht for some mothers and
babies breastfeeding is not an easy thing to learn and there can be major
barriers. Pumping to keep up or built up a supply can be needed while
mothers are working on these issues. And there are circumstances that a baby
wil never be able to or learn to feed at breast. In those cases pumping and
alternatively feeding is without question. My point is about the assumption
that pumping in all cases will solve the problem. In my opinion pumping and
bottlle feeding will in many cases just solve the symptoms, not the problem.

 

 

 


             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html