Tina Lavy asks if we ever have a day that makes us feel 'doing what we do is worth every minute'  and then recounts a story of a mother who has remembered the support Tina gave her, many moons ago, as 'saving her life'.  
Yes, Tina, I know I am not alone on this list in saying I do have days like that, and they are what keep me going when my boss says outright that my job in postpartum clinic isn't as demanding as working prenatal clinic since 'all I do is handle breastfeeding concerns' (implied: nothing life-or-death ever happens in my office), or any of the silly comments it is our misfortune to hear from people who don't have a clue.  

I feel so privileged to have a job that actually matters to the people who use our services, and that involves so much joy and so much learning.  It's really great to live in a smallish community because you do get to see people again, either in your office or just on the street or any of those chance places you run into people, even on holidays in other parts of the country, and you get to see that it really does make a difference, on such a level that you remain part of some of the most precious memories they have.

Recently I met a woman who was in having her second child and wanted some extra follow up with breastfeeding because she had had some difficulties in the beginning with her firstborn.  I saw her last time over several weeks and I learned that she had planned not to breastfeed out of fear of smothering her child by being too close.  She had her reasons for her concern and she struggled to reconcile her fear of becoming a smothering parent with her very strong and completely unexpected (by her) drive to breastfeed. The desire to breastfeed won, helped along in great measure by the baby who flat out insisted on coming to breast.  I heard from her last about 6 months after that birth, when she wrote a letter to say she was still breastfeeding and very happy about it.  I had to take a fair amount of flak for giving her time in the clinic 'when she doesn't even want to breastfeed'.  Guess how vindicated I felt when I asked her now how old her daughter was, and she said 'She's almost three and a half...  and she weaned last summer!'
The breastfeeding is going fine now, after she realized her uncertainty now is because the baby seems so SMALL - as it would if you barely stopped breastfeeding a toddler before becoming pregnant again :-)

Hang on to these stories, everyone. They are what sustain us in the midst of all the slings and arrows.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

 

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