Washington Post:
I am writing about your article "When Breastfeeding Fails" which I read
online.

I agree that mothers feel like failures or feel guilty when they don't
"successfully" breastfeed. They grieve the loss of it. What you don't
mention is that these same mothers WISH THEY WOULD HAVE SUCCEEDED. They just
didn't have the help they needed. Maybe the ONLY solution they were offered
was to "give a bottle of formula."

Your article states that "part of the issue...is the difficulty getting
lactation counseling once mothers leave the hospital. A study ...found that
only 1 percent of the women were given breast-feeding assistance after the
birth." This could be remedied by utilizing mother to mother support groups
and other peer counselors, and board certified lactation consultants. While
I acknowledge that some women and babies have physical reasons that make
full breastfeeding impossible, I also know that most breastfeeding failures
are the result of misinformation, mismanagement, lack of support, and
downright sabotage of breastfeeding - from the moment of birth, if not
before.

Peer and professional breastfeeding helpers are very aware of how mothers
feel when they cannot breastfeed or their breastfeeding relationship is cut
prematurely short. They are disappointed, devastated, hurt, and angry - at
the plastic surgeon who said it wouldn't affect breastfeeding, at the nurse
who said to nurse only 5 minutes each side, to the neighbor who said
bleeding nipples were normal, and to the doctor who said you must wean
because you must take this antibiotic.

And all of this is a crying shame.

Laurie Wheeler, RN, MN, IBCLC
Board certified lactation consultant
[address, phone omitted here]


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