I just attended the annual OLCA "Breastfest" at which Marsha Walker was
one of the featured speakers. I want to express to her and publicly my
growing admiration for her as I attend her lectures and stir around in my
old ILCA stuff and read more of her writing.

I believe she is akin to one of the midwives that has been tending to the
whole LC profession during its conception, growth and development. My hat
is off to her.

I am in awe of her passion and her scholarship and leadership in her area
of special interest: the insidiousness of formula's grip on our society,
especially formula manufacturer's chokehold on our health care culture,
and our seeming paralysis in breaking our addiction to their
blandishments. Her references provided to us are a tremendous resource.

That having been said, in order to maintain my personal sense of
integrity in my real, everyday world, I now feel challenged to mull over
what my new personal response to mothers will be.

I find it works best for me to make short personal scripts for myself, as
otherwise, I tend to get carried away, come off as supercilious and end
up shooting myself in the foot as far as influence on WIC mothers.

It was far less threatening to them to hear "Breastmilk is superior" or
"Breastmilk has so many extra benefits". But after all of Diane W's and
Coach Smith's carefully thought out proofs, I agree that often tends to
flow off their conciousness like water off a duck's back.

Yet, I can't bring myself to say outright to them, first time I interact
with them: "Formula is inferior, and has so many risks." That's just not
where they're at in their thinking process, no matter if that's where
we're at as LC's and other HCP's.

(Besides, in order to stay inside the organization as a volunteer [like a
computer worm or virus :-)], I must beware of how the local supervisors
would view what I say!)

I want every individual mother I deal with to sense my respect for her
and her love and desire to do her very best for her child, no matter how
poor or uneducated she may be. She is not responsible for the flood of
misinformation out there.

I don't want her to bristle inside about some "white-haired old honkie"
or "goodie two-shoes old granny" dissing her and her friends and
relatives.

This simple phrase is what I believe I will try for starters: "Formula is
just not as good as your breastmilk, and it never will be, no matter what
they invent to put in it."

Maybe self-evident to the rest of you, but it took a lot of effort for me
to distill my thoughts and pare my words.

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

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