Short version of numerous posts of mine in the archives:

If you give a mother a shield, you are responsible for following her until
she no longer needs it or until feeding is going well with appropriate
growth in the baby and mother is satisfied.  Any other use of shields
constitutes negligence in my book.  Of course she should be shown proper
application of the shield and be informed of common pitfalls of shield use
(mastitis from poor drainage of breast, lower supply for the same reason,
being the two most common ones).

Need for a shield is a sign that this mother needs MORE and BETTER help with
breastfeeding than the average mother.  A shield can be an invaluable
adjunct to such help.  It is never meant to be given INSTEAD of help.
Imagine if we just went in to a woman struggling to push her baby out,
getting exhausted, and with early signs of fetal distress, and unpacked a
vacuum extractor, handed it to her, and said 'Try this, I don't have time to
sit here any more because something more important requires my attention.'
We are doing the same thing when we dispense shields without doing all the
other stuff we do in order that the shield will actually serve a purpose.

Rachel Myr
Formerly death on shields, now just a very conservative user of same.
Kristiansand, Norway

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