Hi everybody,

Thanks to everybody who congratulated me on my great day.  I'm still
feeling pleased and I've had a couple of calls directly related to the
day.  I hadn't been able to read any Lactnet since Thursday because I've
been too busy helping my son to get ready to go to university.  We took
him to Cambridge today, so its back to the computer.

Jane asked if I could give some more information about my talk.  Magda
mentioned that UK health visitors are often completely uninterested in
breastfeeding and that is what I was expecting, so I decided to keep it
simple, giving the risks of formula feeding while presenting
breastfeeding as normal, not superior.  Then I went on to positive
statements, each starting "I can breastfeed...".  I got these statements
from mothers at a La Leche League meeting, asking them think of every
reason they'd ever been told for not breastfeeding and turn them
positive.  They included, "I can breastfeed, I have enough milk; even if
I smoke; and eat hot curries; a big baby; a small baby; and take
prescription drugs; everytime the baby wants to," etc, etc.  The first
questions were about drugs--a big issue.  I kept referring back to the
known risks of formula that I had given at the beginning.  These were
followed by the "everytime the baby wants to" concerns.  This led nicely
into cluster feeding and following the baby's guide.  I gave them reasons
for this, telling them, frequent feeding increases the fat concentration
of the milk; long gaps between feeds increases the water content.  I had
my copy of Breastfeeding--Biocultural Perspectives, with me.  I held it
up and said "the research for this is so well established that it is in a
book!"  I didn't feel the need for any more recent research and neither
did they.

The health visitor who said she was going to change her practice told me
she had only breastfed one week with each of her children, thinking she
didn't have enough milk because her babies wanted to feed frequently.
She also would suggest mothers give water if the baby wouldn't go "long
enough".  Giving an explantion for a baby's behaviour that made sense
made all the difference.

I also told them that I didn't have an explanation for those babies who
happily establish a 3-4 hourly feeding pattern, but those babies were
also normal if they had chosen it themselves, hoping I wouldn't start
getting calls from worried mothers convinced their babies weren't getting
enough fat!

Jill Dye
LLLleader, England

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