Susan writes about the outrage of nurses hearing about 'risks of
formula' during their basic bf education.

I think you are right, Susan - for some it is too much to hear, esp
if they themselves fed formula to their babies, or if they themselves
were formula fed.

This is one way I think the volunteer organisations like NCT and LLL
really get it right in their training - it  involves *debriefing* of
personal experience, which is enormously helpful in getting personal
attitudes and beliefs and other 'stuff" out in the open, dealt with
and put on the back burner where they belong.

In 8 hours (!) of training these nurses in bf support, you don't have
a lot of time to do much of this, but when I talk to healthcare profs
about bf (and sometimes I have an hour!!!) , I come clean - I say a
lot of what we 'know' and 'feel' about bf is tied up with our own
experience and attitudes, and some of it lies pretty deep, too...and
that we can't really deal with that here and now, but it *is*
important.  I think it's helpful to acknowledge that hearing about
risks is uncomfortable, and you are not in any way meaning to
criticise or judge - just giving the truth, just as you would with
any other healthcare info. And if they have strong feelings, that's
ok - it shows them another truth - that feeding, however you do it,
is a whole lot more than just getting milk into babies. They may even
be able to *use* those feelings to empathise with mothers who wanted
to bf, and didn't, because of lack of support etc, and who now feel
sad and disappointed.


I really think this helps to disarm criticism and outrage quite a lot.

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc Newcastle upon Tyne UK

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