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Subject:
From:
"Kermaline J. Cotterman" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 2 Feb 2001 12:30:00 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
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Rachel wrote, in response to my question about use of the term "PTSD":

<Jean, I share your
hesitation to label it in what could be an inflammatory way. >

It occurred to me that it would be possible to express it to the parents
a little more lightly (no offense intended to any ex-military folk).

In describing a baby's behavior of not responding positively to the
stimulus of the breast in the first few days, we could observe that "he
has been through a lot (birth and subsequent interventions) and acts as
if he's sort of 'shell-shocked' . Maybe what he needs is a little more R
& R (rest and recreation) lying next to you skin to skin."

I believe the term "shell-shocked" grew out of WW I, (no, I wasn't around
then! Came on the scene 12 years later, and as a child, heard the term
used:-).

The term was later replaced by psychiatrists observing altered behavior
of some combatants in more recent wars, and observers and survivors of
trauma in general, thus the more general term "PTSD".

A Native American saying goes "War makes warriors crazy." I understand
there are ancient tribal rituals to help them heal from their psychic
trauma, and these have been more successful with healing than anything
other ethnic groups do for their troubled soldiers.

"Therapeutic touch" is big in professional nursing circles. If only
someday some nurse researchers could tie these threads together. This
could help more hospital nurses focus on a new paradigm of "healing
rituals" like early and sustained skin-to-skin contact with parents,
face-gently-in-contact-with-breast, massage, humming lullabyes, etc.

We nurses seem to like interventions. If we could convince hospital
nurses that these are truly interventions which must begin early, as soon
after birth as possible, it might dissuade them from over conscientiously
resorting to later, forceful, desparation actions that have no supporting
research to prove any value and often create more problems than they
solve.

Jean
*********************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA

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