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Subject:
From:
Chris Hafner-Eaton <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 4 Apr 2000 17:34:36 -0700
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Nikki:  Nice post on historical issues of women's roles...oh, if life were
only fair and the legal system truly reconciled this.  It is ironic that
80-90% of health care in the US is actually self-care, and mostly determined
by the senior female in the household.

I think you make a very valid point about the "care of strangers".  Those of
us who live in smaller communities (I live in a city of 50,000, which is a
small city in the US), have a more intimate sense of community than let's
say those living in cities of 8-10 million (I've lived and practiced in
those too).  Our litigation rate is much lower, although I'm not convinced
it's because of higher quality of care (which is what our only hospital
likes to tout).  The loss of the sense of community and identification
between provider and practitioner has probably contributed enormously to the
threat of lawsuits, and distrust in general.  I do think that IBCLCs have an
advantage in this area, even in large cities, because they are not seeing
patients "on a tread mill" and spend a great deal of time at a particularly
vulnerable moment in peoples' lives.  I have examined this issue in the area
of midwifery (I am NOT a midwife, but a supporter of midwifery in spite of 3
c/s).  If anyone is interested, one of my articles on this can be found in
the J. of Health Politics, Policy and Law (Winter 1994) "BIRTH CHOICES, THE
LAW, AND THE PUBLIC'S HEALTH."  (I also wonder whether the involvement of
third party payers has undermined the intimacy shared in the IBCLC-patient
relationship.)
Warmly,
Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC    [log in to unmask]
mom, wife, educator, lactation consultant, researcher, scientist, author,
organic gardener, photographer, lapidary creator, lousy cleaner.

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