As everyone has pointed out, gloves depend on the setting.  I have a private
practice, and like Pat, all I do is wash.  Otherwise, I feel I'm sending the
message not that the mother or baby is dirty, but that breastfeeding (and
breastfeeding help) is technical, complex, medical, and even risky.  Heck,
if she wants to bottle-feed, she can just pick the can off a dusty grocery
shelf and toss it in the cart with the broccoli!

I do wash, of course, and if it's at my house, I use a small trick I learned
from Faith Ploude.  I leave the bathroom *drying my hands on a paper towel.*
I even use the paper towel -casually but visibly - to close the door before
I throw it away.  The unspoken message is that I've *just* washed, and
haven't touched anything since.  In the mother's own home without paper
towels, I can't use the same strategy.  But I use her own towel, regardless
of how well-used it is, figuring that it just carries that household's
normal germs.  

Babies eat carpet fuzz.  I figure they can handle a clean and ungloved hand
on their back or feet or arm.  And it's a good point about HCPs giving
general physicals.  On my just plain skin, I don't recall anyone ever
wearing gloves.  I'd think it was weird if they did.

Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC, LLLL  Ithaca, NY  USA


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