Kathy,
you wrote:
<When I get discouraged
I think about how far we've come.>
One of my main purposes in posting.
< When I started in the NICU 30 years ago no
mother ever touched her baby never mind breastfed. >
Yes. How sad. And several years before that, no parent ever set FOOT in
what was then called the "premie nursery". They were simply "permitted"
to view their babies through the window during limited hours of the day,
and the curtains were kept closed the rest of the time.
Change seemed to begin with Marshall Klaus's early work, plus the
realization that a high proportion of E.R. admissions for child abuse
were children who had had a long newborn stay in the premie nursery in
isolation from their parents (and opportunities for bonding).
I remember preparing a protocol for use of EBM in the NICU in the
mid'70s, then waiting for a daring pediatrician and a willing mom to come
along to spearhead its initial use.
Someone at our local children's hospital heard about it, and asked me to
visit to help set up their first trial use even before it happened in our
hospital! Was I jubilant!
<I was so moved by your post. I could picture you in the dark, behind the
curtains, helping mothers and I know you could have just as well been at
the
desk reading a magazine. You were TRULY a pioneer!!!>
Thanks. After my own delightful (finally) experience, I felt I had been
"gypped" out of something very essential with my first three. I simply
did what I had to do in my own back yard. Not exactly like the Frontier
Midwifery service in Breckenridge, Ky, but their spirit inspired me!
I saw a quote recently, I think from Isaac Newton:
"If we seem to see further than others, it's because we stand on the
shoulders of giants."
Good to be part of the pyramid so many of you are rising upward on to
help create the future for mothers and babies, one duo at a time, health
care institutions, one arena at a time, and thereby, the world.
Jean
**************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA
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