I wonder if Karyn-Grace is responding to the same issues with which I struggle.   When I 
speak to friends and acquaintances about how breastfeeding is going for them, more 
often than not, sadly, they repeat to me misinformation they have gleaned from their 
health visitors, doctors and even midwives.  While most of these friends and 
acquaintances know that I am a lactation wonk, they are hesitant to take my word for it 
when I tell them something that contradicts medical advice. 

For example, I have given out LLL tear-off sheets about safe milk storage, only to learn 
that our local hospital (a Baby Friendly hospital, no less!) is giving out written instructions 
warning that breastmilk goes bad after 24 hours of refrigeration. Short of finding a 
medical person who will back up the LLL information, I don’t know how to convince 
anyone that the hospital instructions are incorrect.

If I’m interpreting Karyn-Grace’s concerns correctly, she is frustrated at least in part 
because most new mothers are much more likely to believe what medical people tell 
them than what peers tell them.  I don’t discount what others have written about the 
power of peer support and teaching by example.  However, if a trusted medical 
professional has told a new mother that scheduling is necessary, that supplementing is 
necessary, that baby should be sleeping through the night, that cosleeping is dangerous, 
that starting solids after the six-month mark will deprive her baby of iron, the deck is 
stacked against the knowledgeable peer, isn’t it?

I agree that normal breastfeeding should be less intervened upon, not more.  But I also 
share Karyn-Grace’s fond wish that every new mother would encounter someone in the 
medical sphere who is able and willing to facilitate normal breastfeeding and motheriing, 
whether that facilitation involves, as it should in most cases, staying away and letting 
nature take its course or, in cases in which it is warranted, appropriate intervention.  

Kerry Ose

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