Nikki, you raise a lot of interesting points.  If you haven't already read
_Impact of Birthing Practices on Breastfeeding: Protecting the Mother and
Baby Continuum_ (Mary Kroeger and Linda Smith) on this topic, I'd
encourage you to do so.  There is solid research behind these ideas!  I
think all of us who are breastfeeding advocates have to work hard to
protect birth and make it better than it currently is if we want to
protect breastfeeding.

I've known a *few* women whose less-than-ideal birth experience made them
all the more determined to "get breastfeeding right", but a lot *more*
seem to lose their determination to breastfeed after having a highly
medicalized or otherwise complicated birth experience.  :(

I agree with Jaye's assessment... it's sad, so sad.

Cee

 On Fri, 18 Mar 2005, Nikki Lee wrote:

> Dear Friends:
>     This is an interesting topic, with many  answers.
>     Women are often assaulted in technologically driven  birth, and
> physically injured and/or energetically battered . Once the baby is  born, the woman is
> shocked into silence or resistance, as coping strategies to  survive an
> overwhelming situation.
>     I also wonder about the emotional impact of  pitocin. Hormones create
> feelings and feelings motivate behavior. As pitocin is  now given to virtually
> everyone that I see, whether as a LC in private practice  or as a RN for an
> agency, I wonder if the abuse of the synthetic hormone is  creating another
> susceptibility for women to keep some distance for their  babies.
>     How many facilities keep the mother and baby  undisturbed, skin-to-skin,
> until the first breastfeed (as recommended by Righard  and Alade)? Many
> facilities have mother and baby stay together, but they are not  left alone. Staff
> have jobs to do, the dyad is frequently interrupted and there  is pressure to
> 'do breastfeeding correctly' from the very first  attachment.
>     Perhaps mothers whose prenatal intention is to  breastfeed and who change
> after delivery is an artifact of the birthing  practices in institutions?
>     warmly,
>
>
> Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
> Maternal-Child Adjunct  Faculty Union Institute and University
> Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human  Lactation
> Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth  Initiative
>
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Cecilia Mitchell Miller
Certified Bradley Childbirth Educator
Certified Birth Doula (DONA)
Distributor, Maya Wrap Slings
http://www.kjsl.net/~cee
Jacksonville, FL USA

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