In response to Heather's question about noticing less engorgement with
rooming-in and unrestricted feeds, I have spoken to some midwives who work
in the only private clinic in Florence that still does L&D, and they told
me that since introducing rooming-in and basically abandoning the newborn
*nursery*, they spend a lot less time running around with hot water bottles
for mothers with engorged breasts.

As far as so-called *test weighing* goes, it is still very much alive and
well here in Florence.  Not only alive, but considered, yes, a *test* of
how much milk a mother produces.  Most mothers go home from the hospital
with instructions to weigh baby before and after EACH feed, and supplement
if the baby has not taken *enough* breast milk.  Naturally, there are huge
numbers of women who stop bf during the first month because it is so
stressful to be put to the test as a mother at every feed (they have also
probably been told not to feed more often than every 3 or 4 hours).
Depressing at best.

Auguri per l'anno nuovo (Happy New Year)
Elise

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Elise M. Chapin
Firenze, Italy
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