I may not always agree - but Jennifer Tow always makes me THINK - thank you for your post!

 

I'm so sorry, Holly, that this discussion is depressing you!  I find it exhilarating when people with a variety of knowledge and experience share their information.  

 

As IBCLCs, most of us realized we had to learn from other specialties, not only about motor function, nutrition, environmental contaminants, oral developments (and those specialties need to learn from us) – we also need to learn Communication Skills – with moms and with each other!   

 

I'll never forget attending one of the first conferences given by Wolf and Glass - before they were IBCLCs.  They taught me the importance of cross-specialty communication.  It was actually, in my view, a dialogue – they would present the information about oral anatomy, movement and treatments, and allowed us to “interpret” out loud their information into how this would affect breastfeeding, and how their information would help us improve it.  What fun!

 

We need to learn, question, then learn again.  How many of us used to think only mouth to skin would allow a baby to milk the breast effectively enough to make milk - and how many pumping moms (due to NICU, work situations - even travel and long term situations, and choice) have been able to maintain a good milk supply.  How many moms have been able to breastfeed exclusively with a nipple shield?

 

We "experts" developed whole lists of "positions" correct angles, appropriate places for hands...giving mothers the feeling that if they couldn't learn how to do an Argentinian Tango they certainly could not breastfeed!  And how many of us have learned to be "laid back" _ourselves_  and cheerlead mom and baby as they figure out how to get THIS mother's breast into THIS baby's mouth so baby could milk it effectively?

 

We should be aware that what we are doing or saying may not always be correct (when giving conferences I often repeat the quote used in many medical schools:  "half of what I'm teaching may be proved wrong in 5 years - and we don't know which half!)  That is the fascinating part of being a Lactation Consultant.  I still go back to the book Women's Ways of Knowing... we start as Receivers of Knowledge then to Subjective Knowledge, then to Procedural Knowledge - finally to Constructed Knowledge (some of us never get there, but Jennifer Tow, Catherine Watson-Genna and others have been generous in sharing theirs).  

 

Again – thanks, Jennifer  - and hang in there - Holly!  Enjoy the ride!  It's been a great one for me, a La Leche League Leader since 1975 and an IBCLC since 1985!

 

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC

Vacaville, CA


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