Someone posed a question about women having different breastfeeding
outcomes despite attending the same prenatal breastfeeding classes.

Although I am a big fan of both childbirth and prenatal breastfeeding
sessions, education is just one of the Three Essentials (my
terminology.)   The other two are support and motivation.  Some mothers
will fly to the moon and back in order to make it work and others will
quit from the smallest discomfort.

Another major factor is where the mother gave birth and what kind of
experience she had.  Besides the often unreasonable amount of chemicals
mothers and babies get, the pair is subject to a host of medical and
hospital procedures within a short period of time... blood, urine, blood
pressure and internal exams; injections, IV's and sometimes surgery.
Then there's the lack of privacy, hospital food, clothing and timetables
which make the mother feel like she's "ill."  (In fact, the Hebrew word
for patient is choleh/cholah which literally means sick.)  If the baby
has spent some time in the nursery, he has been bathed, diapered,
pricked and examined by a number of rushed health care providers.  What
about the temperature in the nursery?  What about the overhead lights on
24 hours a day?  What about the telephones?  I could go on and on... I'm
getting stressed just thinking about it.
Most mothers who come to my office within days of giving birth in
government hospitals sit on the sofa and cry.  They feel like they've
been though a war and are hurting physically and even more so
psychologically.  Yes, the hospitals are better than they used to be and
recently they've invested money in the wards - mostly cosmetic changes-
but they've still got a long way to go.  While I'm still uncertain about
the safety of home births - at least in Israel at present -  I can
understand why more and more mothers are opting for them.  Has anyone
else noticed the difference 3 or 4 days post-partum?  The babies are
RELAXED.
The mothers are more relaxed.  Instead of concentrating on the PROBLEMS,
she is able to concentrate on her FAMILY.  Even if she has concerns or
questions, she doesn't feel so overwhelmed.  I don't think we can
underestimate the damage stress can cause to do breastfeeding.

Susan Nachman-Srebrnik, IBCLC
Ranana, Israel (who has had to pick up the pieces too many times.)

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