Rith:  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for so eloquently putting into words 
what I have been doing in my practice for 25 years!  I am constantly amazed 
at what I am reading on Lactnet.  I hope that mothers are not reading this 
list as I am left, as an LC,with the impression that nothng goes right 
after reading a typical day's worth of postings.  When I hear a mom saying 
words like asymmetrical latch, foremilk, hindmilk, etc. I know that she is 
way overthinking breastfeeding and is setting herself up for problems.  I 
am also constantly amazed at the number of mothers who act afraid when her 
baby begins to do his "dance" on her chest.  I frequently have to stop 
mothers from preventing their babies free movement on their chests. The 
most common being the mother preventing the downward movement of the baby 
from between her breasts to a nipple.  I'm also convinced that the baby 
first chooses th nipple he wants to nurse from.  Once, as an experiment, I 
moved the baby from the right nipple that he was trying to get to, to the 
left nipple.  Wow! Did he get mad! Refused to latch until we allowed him to 
go back to the right breast.  Most mothers "get it" as we watch the baby do 
his thing, with most exclaiming that they never knew a baby was capable of 
this type of behavior.  One mom demanded to know why she was never told 
this - she had taken a breastfeeding class and was well-read prior to 
delivery.  Now...if we could convince more mothers to accept less 
intervention during birth, we would really be on to something.
I can predict with unsettling accuracy the mothers who will have issues 
with breastfeeding by observing their behavior towards their babies.
I admit, I do not see the either the type orfrequencyof problems that many 
of my colleagues report.  Most of my mothers do just fine and I think I see 
a longer duration of breastfeeding among my mothers because they were 
encouraged to let their and their babies' hormones do what they have been 
programmed to do.
After all, isn't breastfeeding hormone-driven?
Again, Thank you, Ruth.

Pam Hirsch, BSN,RN,IBCLC
Clinical Lead, Lactation Services
Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital
Barrington, IL   USA

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