Hi, Pam. Wecome back!

<....but this woman had already made her mind up and obviously just needed
to let someone know she "tried" to breastfeed. >

I used to see a lot of women like this. I just figure "well, at least it
proves that she's aware that BFing is the best, and that it's what HCPs
recommend". It's a first step - at least when a woman is making these kinds
of rationalizations she's not saying "I had no idea that there was any
difference". This is the kind of guilt that can motivate change. Esp. if the
baby is one of those that has to have his formula changed all the time
because it doesn't agree with him. Maybe next time...

<Then I could have kicked myself for going in her room first when there was
another mom down the hall who REALLY wanted to nurse and needed some help.
I missed her feeding.  I try to get the nurses to help me prioritize but it
doesn't always work out.>

It's actually a compliment to you - they thought that you could "save" the
situation and get this mom to give it a few more tries. They knew the mom
down the hall who REALLY wanted to BF would still want to when you got to
her, but they thought you could really do THIS mom/baby some good. At least,
that's how I always interpreted this sort of thing!

I used to deal with these moms who *say* they wanted to BF by just being
really upfront about it & telling them that I was here to help them with
whatever they wanted to do in terms of feeding their babies, that there's no
question at all about BF being the best way to go but if they weren't going
to BF I wasn't going to badger them about it. Saves a lot of time - makes it
easier for the ones who don't really want my help w/BF to just say so, saves
me from beating my head against a brick wall & get on to the ones who DO
really need me.

Cathy Bargar, RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY

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